Mother of Tumbler Ridge mass shooting survivor Maya Gebala says breathing tube removed
CBC
The mother of a 12-year-old girl critically injured in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., last month says her daughter's breathing tube was removed to see if she could breathe on her own.
A post on the Facebook account belonging to Cia Edmonds, mother of Maya Gebala, says the removal was a "terrifying experience" and she held her daughter's hand as the girl winced.
But Edmonds writes in the post on Friday that her daughter was "doing great" and "looking more like her beautiful self."
Edmonds and Gebala's father, David Gebala, have said their daughter was struck in the neck and in the head, just above her left eye, when shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Feb. 10.
Van Rootselaar had gone to the school after killing her mother, Jennifer Strang, and 11-year-old half-brother, Emmett Jacobs, at their family home in the northeastern British Columbia community.
A Facebook post by the Tumbler Ridge Chamber of Commerce says the Strang family has invited family, friends and residents of Tumbler Ridge to join them for a service celebrating the lives of Strang and Jacobs on Saturday.
The chamber and its counterpart in Prince George, B.C., are meanwhile urging the B.C. and federal governments to ban children under 16 from using AI tools and social media.
It comes after revelations that Van Rootselaar had made violent posts while using the AI chatbot ChatGPT — with parent company OpenAI under fire for not flagging her account to police.
B.C.'s chief coroner, Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, announced this week that an inquest into the shootings is set to consider the role of artificial intelligence.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said the investigation into the shootings is ongoing and would only conclude once "all investigative avenues have been exhausted."
"It's impossible to provide a specific or detailed timeline, as it is subject to the gathering of all digital and physical evidence and any analysis," he said in a statement.
Days after the shooting, Edmonds and David Gebala exclusively spoke to CBC News and expressed their belief that their daughter would pull through.
Edmonds told CBC News at the time that she wept for all the people affected by the tragedy that unfolded in Tumbler Ridge, including Strang.
Edmonds said Van Rootselaar's mother, a single parent, worked long shifts at a nearby mine and fought to help her child.
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