The deranged transgender teen who gunned down five students and a teacher at a small Canadian school was looking to “finish off” his remaining siblings after first killing his mother and stepbrother at home, according to a student who witnessed the carnage.
Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, began his murderous rampage Tuesday at his home in the sleepy British Columbia community of Tumbler Ridge, killing his 11-year-old stepbrother and their mom, Jennifer Strang, 39.
He then headed to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School — where his younger sisters and brother were when he shot it up, other students told the Telegraph.
“I am positive he went to finish off his family,” student Duncan McKay, 17, told the outlet.
Instead, the transgender teen — whose social media show he was obsessed with drugs and guns — killed others not related to him as they attended the rural school with just 160 pupils.
They were identified by authorities Thursday as 12-year-old students Zoey Benoit, Ticaria Lampert, Kylie Smith and Abel Mwansa, 13-year-old Ezekiel Schofield, and 39-year-old teacher Shannda Aviugana-Durand.
Van Rootselaar took his own life at the school after the mass shooting, during which at least 25 others were injured, officials said.
McKay said he was playing badminton when he recalled hearing more than a dozen shots that sounded like “a hammer banging on metal” before he and his classmate ran for their lives, hiding silently in the dark in an equipment cupboard.
A teacher who was checking the doors was “shot at twice right through the door” while they were inside, McKay said.
One of the bullets nearly struck his leg and another was lodged in the door near his head.
They were escorted safely out by police three hours later, he said.
