James Cody Bryant, a 30-year-old Washington state resident who the FBI says identifies as female, was arrested on Tuesday, charged in connection with a school shooting in Canada earlier this year. U.S. authorities arrested Bryant on a charge of conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country, the U.S. Justice Department confirmed.
Prosecutors said that Bryant “offered advice” and had been in “repeated contact” with the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, over the platform Discord. On February 10, Van Rootselaar, 18, who was born male and had been transitioning to female for six years, killed her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother. Van Rootselaar then went to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and killed five children—three 12-year-old girls and two boys, one aged 12 and one aged 13—and a teacher.
Van Rootselaar then died by suicide. The shooting marked one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canada’s history. In a press release issued by the Department of Justice, Acting U.S.
Attorney Neil Floyd said it is “profoundly disturbing” to learn that a resident of the Western Washington area may have had a role in the attack and had taken steps, including “providing counsel, technical advice, and money to the shooter planning such a tragedy.” The 41-page criminal complaint, reviewed by Newsweek, details accusations that Bryant encouraged and aided Van Rootselaar’s plan and cites communications between the two, including photos. The criminal complaint does not list an attorney for Bryant, and it was not immediately clear whether counsel had been retained. The complaint says the two met on the video chat service Omegle—around three years before the shooting—and kept in contact through the online communication service Discord.
The two allegedly lost contact twice when Van Rootselaar was admitted to a mental health facility. There is no indication in the complaint that they had met in person. The criminal complaint states that leading up to the attack, Bryant had assured Van Rootselaar that Bryant would not “snitch” to law enforcement and would be there to handle the live streaming.
It alleges that Bryant had provided money and technical advice. It alleges that Bryant, at multiple points between the August preceding the shooting and the February when it took place, tried to talk Van Rootselaar out of the attack but ultimately did not contact law enforcement and agreed to handle the livestreaming of the shooting. According to the complaint, Bryant had admitted to being in contact with Van Rootselaar in the hours prior to the shooting.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
