Tumbler Ridge accused co-conspirator indicted by U.S. grand jury

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Bellingham resident James Cody Bryant has been indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country over their purported role in the Feb. 10 Tumbler Ridge mass shooting involving Jesse Van Rootselaar.

The indictment highlighted several overt acts in the months before the shooting, which claimed the lives of six people at the secondary school and seriously injured several others. A guilty verdict on the charge is punishable by up to life in prison.

Police say Bryant, who is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 22, was in frequent communication with Van Rootselaar in the six months leading up to the school shooting, including allegedly agreeing in August to record and broadcast the shooting over the internet.

Bryant and Van Rootselaar communicated by Discord, an online chat tool, in messages numbering in the thousands, according to police records that reviewed the exchanges.

The indictment includes allegations that Bryant offered advice on weapons and the best place to stage the attack; tested the livestream several times in the months leading up to it; sent money to Van Rootselaar by PayPal to buy a lighter for an improvised explosive device; and discussed methods of concealing their communications and source of the livestream because of the gross illegality of the planned act. The indictment also outlines how Bryant, 30, tested the livestream on the day of the murders and communicated that it later had gone down.

Van Rootselaar, who was transitioning to female, killed her mother Jennifer Jacobs and half-brother, 11-year-old Emmett Jacobs, before moving on to Tumbler Ridge secondary school, where she shot and killed students Abel Mwansa, Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit, Ticaria Lampert and Ezekiel Schofield, as well as teaching assistant Shannda Aviugana-Durand.

Van Rootselaar used an IED to damage the school and fired through locked doors in attempts to get into classrooms before exchanging gunfire with police. She ultimately committed suicide.

Bryant also identifies as female and goes by the name Melody, according to reports from The Canadian Press.

The FBI, Homeland Security and the RCMP are collaborating on the investigation, with the prosecution being led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg, with assistance from the U.S. Justice Department’s National Security Division.

Bryant was denied bail Tuesday in a Federal Court in Seattle, with prosecutors arguing they presented a danger to the public after allegedly helping orchestrate the mass shooting.