OpenAI says Canada mass shooter evaded ban with second ChatGPT account

The shooter’s first ChatGPT account was shut down in June 2025, the letter said, after a violation of its usage policy

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said Thursday the shooter in one of the worst school shootings in Canada's history got around a ban on her problematic use of the service by having a second account.

The revelation came as the San Francisco tech company outlined in a letter to Canada's government some “immediate steps” it was taking in response to the killings, and that if these had been in place at the time, police would have been informed of the activity on the account.

OpenAI's vice president for global policy, Ann O’Leary, said the company only discovered the second account after Jesse Van Rootselaar’s name was announced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who said Van Rootselaar killed eight people and then herself in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on February 10.

She said the shooter somehow evaded systems to prevent banned users from creating new accounts, and Van Rootselaar’s second account was shared with law enforcement upon its discovery.

The letter said OpenAI is committed to strengthening its detection systems to better prevent attempts to evade its safeguards and “prioritize identifying the highest risk offenders.”

The shooter’s first ChatGPT account was shut down in June 2025, the letter said, after a violation of its usage policy. The letter said OpenAI’s automated system detected the account, and it was then sent to human review to determine whether its policies were violated and whether the account warranted referral to law enforcement.