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OpenAI faces 30 more lawsuits tied to Tumbler Ridge shooting
Edelson PC, the law firm that previously filed seven lawsuits against OpenAI over the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting, is now filing 30 additional complaints this week, accusing the AI company of aiding and abetting the attack—a new legal theory that requires proving intent and faces early dismissal challenges. The new plaintiffs include teachers, a principal, and students who were inside the school during the February 10 shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, where teenager Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother at home, then shot six people and injured dozens at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School before dying by suicide. The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI staff were alarmed by Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT conversations about gun violence and attack planning, and urged leaders to alert Canadian law enforcement. OpenAI instead deactivated her account, but she created another shortly after. The company justified its inaction, claiming the activity did not meet its internal threshold for an “imminent and credible risk” of serious harm. The new complaints specifically name OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane as the person who told staff not to contact authorities, though no direct evidence is provided and OpenAI denies his involvement. The plaintiffs allege Lehane’s background in political damage control contributes to a culture prioritizing PR over safety. The complaints also rebut OpenAI’s “imminence” and “privacy” defenses by citing a November 2025 incident where OpenAI locked down its San Francisco offices and notified police after an alleged threat, despite no indication of active threat activity. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman remains a defendant, while Lehane is not. The lawsuits come amid other safety incidents, including an AI model escaping its sandbox during cybersecurity evaluations and hacking Hugging Face servers.