OpenAI Faces 30 New Lawsuits Over Tumbler Ridge Shooting, Accused of Putting Image Ahead of Safety

OpenAI accused of 'aiding and abetting' Tumbler Ridge mass shooting in dozens of new lawsuits

OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman are facing 30 new lawsuits that accuse them of providing "substantial assistance and encouragement" to the suspect in Canada's Tumbler Ridge school shooting, as reported earlier by TechCrunch. The new wave of lawsuits was filed in a California federal court on Wednesday by the students, teachers, and the principal in the school at the time of the shooting. Similar to the lawsuits filed by Tumbler Ridge victims' families in April, these lawsuits claim OpenAI failed to take action after its automated review system flagged conversations that the alleged shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, had with ChatGPT about gun violence. While its safety team recommended that OpenAI contact Canadian authorities, the lawsuits allege OpenAI chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, was involved in a decision to stay silent out of concern for the company's "reputational and financial standing." Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, responded to the lawsuits in a post on X, saying they contain "false claims" about its safety teams. He adds that it's "completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety, or that there are 'political' or 'public relations' factors at play." OpenAI is also facing a lawsuit from the state of Florida, which accuses the company of aiding and abetting mass shooters, including the suspect who carried out an attack at Florida State University last year. The new Tumbler Ridge lawsuits also allege that OpenAI allowed the suspect to continue using ChatGPT by "deactivating" their account rather than issuing a system-wide ban. This allegedly allowed the suspect to regain access to the AI chatbot by signing up with another email. "Providing the Shooter with continued access to this tool constituted substantial assistance in itself," the lawsuit alleges, claiming OpenAI's "substantial assistance was a key factor in causing the Shooter to plan and carry out the attack."

New lawsuits claim OpenAI execs put image ahead of safety in Canadian mass shooting

New lawsuits brought against OpenAI on Wednesday over a school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, accuse the ChatGPT maker's executives of putting its public image ahead of public safety. Thirty complaints were filed against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a San Francisco federal court by people present at the shooting, including students, teachers, and a principal. In April, families of seven other victims injured or killed in the February 2026 shooting sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to notify law enforcement of the alleged shooter's violent conversations with ChatGPT and aiding and abetting the shooting. The new lawsuits make similar claims against OpenAI and Altman. But they also make new allegations that officials responsible for OpenAI's public relations, including chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane, overrode its safety team's recommendation that it refer the account to the authorities. "What these complaints show is the larger impact and how many people's lives were really destroyed all based on decisions made by people at OpenAI," said Jay Edelson, the lead attorney representing the Tumbler Ridge victims and their families. OpenAI disputed the claims about the company's internal decision-making. "It's so frustrating to see one of the lawyers currently suing OpenAI make false claims not only about these teams, but individuals who were not involved in the process," Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer, said in an emailed statement to NPR. "As just one example, it is absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with our original referral decision, or that our investigators report to him in any way. It's also completely untrue to say that the people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety, or that there are 'political' or 'public relations' factors at play," Kwon said. "We've been approaching this litigation with respect for both the legal process and the families and victims of this tragedy, and we'll continue to engage in good faith with that process." Alleged shooter was flagged by OpenAI's systems The Tumbler Ridge shooting was among the worst in Canadian history. The alleged shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, killed five students and a teacher before killing herself, according to authorities. Around two dozen others were injured. Authorities later learned that Van Rootselaar had also killed her mother and 11-year-old half-brother at their home prior to coming to the school. Eight months before the shooting, in June 2025, OpenAI's automated systems flagged Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account for "gun violence activity and planning," according to one of the April lawsuits filed on behalf of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old catastrophically injured at the school. OpenAI deactivated the account, but Van Rootselaar created a second account and continued to have conversations with ChatGPT, OpenAI has said. The company says it was not aware of the second account until after the shooting in February. The Tumbler Ridge plaintiffs allege that when OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team reviewed the alleged shooter's conversations with ChatGPT that were flagged last June, they determined they "posed a credible threat of gun violence against real people" and recommended the company alert the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The new complaints allege that recommendation was overruled by the company's global affairs team, led by veteran political strategist Lehane, which is responsible for public relations, public policy and political relationships. The complaints allege that Lehane and Altman approve decisions about whether to refer safety concerns to law enforcement. "As a result, the decision whether to alert law enforcement to a user planning a mass attack was not made by the trained threat-assessment professionals who urged OpenAI to contact the RCMP. It was made, on information and belief, by Lehane himself, or by someone in his chain of command, and ratified by Sam Altman," said one of the complaints filed by Deidre Rushlow, a 7th grade teacher at the school. "Instead of focusing on what's safe for the community, he's focused on, what are the political and public relations fallout going to be if this becomes public?" Edelson said of Lehane, who is not named as a defendant in the suit. Kwon denied Lehane's involvement. He said OpenAI's Intelligence and Investigations team and legal department report to him and "work hard to define standards and processes for when to report cases to law enforcement and to apply those standards to really difficult and complex situations." He said the teams work to identify warning signs of violence while protecting users' privacy, and partners with mental health, behavioral and law enforcement experts to inform its policies. He added: "The professionals working on these teams choose to do this incredibly difficult work because they care so deeply about keeping people safe. They come to work every day knowing that they may have to make a decision that they'll think about for the rest of their lives." "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families," Kwon said. In a statement provided in response to the first set of Tumbler Ridge lawsuits filed in April, OpenAI said it had a "zero tolerance" policy for using its tools to assist in committing violence and had strengthened its safeguards and how ChatGPT responds to signs of distress. At the time, the company put out a blog post about its safety policies, noting that "When conversations indicate an imminent and credible risk of harm to others, we notify law enforcement." Altman also apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community for not alerting law enforcement about the alleged shooter's account when OpenAI first flagged it. AI companies face a growing wave of lawsuits The Tumbler Ridge lawsuits are part of a growing effort to hold artificial intelligence companies accountable when harms follow users' interactions with chatbots. Prior to the newest set of complaints filed on Wednesday, more than 30 lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts against OpenAI and other AI companies over suicides, mass shootings, and other mental or physical harms involving chatbot users, according to NPR's review of legal filings. The majority of the cases involve OpenAI's ChatGPT. In June, the state of Florida sued OpenAI and Altman for failing to warn users that ChatGPT could be dangerous and instead marketed it as safe and reliable, including for children, in the first lawsuit brought against the company by a state. Florida's attorney general is also conducting a separate criminal investigation into OpenAI over a shooting last year at Florida State University in which the accused gunman allegedly consulted ChatGPT for advice. Tim Marple, who worked on OpenAI's investigations team in 2024, said incidents like Tumbler Ridge expose the risks of letting AI companies self-regulate, rather than requiring them to report violent threats on their platforms. Marple is now the co-director of Maiden Labs, a nonprofit that works to identify AI risks. "Despite warnings from across the board, a wide variety of experts, we have not established anywhere close to a meaningful regulatory regime to enforce independent authority over the companies building this technology," he said. "So the problem is, and has been for years, that the only people looking at safety systems are the same people who make money from it."

OpenAI Faces Allegations That It Failed to Act Before Deadly Shooting in 30 New Lawsuits

OpenAI is facing a new wave of litigation tied to the deadly Tumbler Ridge school shooting in British Columbia, with plaintiffs' lawyers filing 30 additional lawsuits that expand the allegations against the ChatGPT maker. The new complaints, filed Tuesday in California, accuse OpenAI not only of failing to intervene before the February attack but, for the first time, of aiding and abetting the shooting -- a significantly more serious legal theory that requires plaintiffs to establish intentional conduct, TechCrunch reported. Benzinga contacted OpenAI for comment. A spokesperson referred the publication to a post on X from Jason Kwon, OpenAI's chief strategy officer. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families," Kwon said. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, carried out a mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Eight people died, including Van Rootselaar's mother and stepbrother before the school attack and six people at the school. Five of the victims were children. More than two dozen additional people were injured. Markets AI Is Speeding Up Private Credit -- JPMorgan Expert Wonders Who'll Spot Its Mistakes Artificial intelligence could give private credit investors an earlier warning when borrowers begin to deteriorate, according to JPMorgan. 3 min read Read this article Van Rootselaar was found dead at the scene from what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Trending OpenAI employees flagged the shooter's account eight months before the attack and concluded it represented "a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people," the April lawsuit stated. Employees reportedly pushed leadership to notify Canadian authorities, but OpenAI instead terminated Van Rootselaar's account. She later created another account, according to the report. OpenAI has defended its decision, saying Van Rootselaar's activity did not meet the company's internal standard for alerting law enforcement, which it describes as an "imminent and credible risk" of serious physical harm. Kwon said OpenAI's Intelligence & Investigations team and Legal department are responsible for setting standards around when cases should be reported to law enforcement. "They use automated systems that leave the toughest calls to human judgment, but within standards to minimize discretion and produce principled decisions that strive to balance security and privacy," Kwon said. He acknowledged that the judgment involved in such decisions "is not infallible," but said the process is designed to balance public safety with the privacy and security of OpenAI's users. Lawsuits Point to OpenAI Executives The new complaints name OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane as the executive who allegedly instructed employees not to contact authorities. Lehane is not named as a defendant. CEO Sam Altman, however, is listed as a defendant in the new complaints, as he was in the earlier lawsuits. Kwon directly disputed the allegations involving Lehane, saying it was "absolutely false" that Lehane was involved in OpenAI's original referral decision or that the company's investigators report to him. Kwon also rejected claims that "political" or public-relations considerations influenced the company's handling of the case. "The people at the center of these challenging decisions do not prioritize safety" is "completely untrue," Kwon said, adding that OpenAI has been approaching the litigation with respect for the legal process and the families and victims of the tragedy. The new complaints also seek to undermine OpenAI's explanation that Van Rootselaar's activity did not present an imminent enough threat to justify contacting police. One filing points to a November 2025 incident involving an alleged threat from an activist against OpenAI's San Francisco offices. The complaint argues that OpenAI responded aggressively even though the company had acknowledged there was "no indication of active threat activity." The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI nevertheless locked down its offices, warned employees, circulated the suspect's name and photograph and contacted the San Francisco Police Department. Plaintiffs argue that the incident shows OpenAI applied a different standard when its own employees were potentially at risk. News Sam Altman Says 'Deeply Sorry' As OpenAI Faces Backlash For Not Reporting Shooter's Alarming AI Chats Before Tumbler Ridge Massacre Altman apologized after OpenAI said it failed to report a flagged user's alarming chatbot interactions to authorities before a mass shooting. 2 min read Read this article This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.