OpenAI sued over ChatGPT warning before Tumbler Ridge shooting

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Northern California by a 12-year-old survivor identified as M.G. and her mother, Cia Edmonds, naming OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman. The complaint accuses the company of negligence, product liability and failing to warn authorities about a credible threat.

The filing says OpenAI’s safety systems flagged conversations in June 2025 tied to 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar that discussed gun violence and planning. Members of a specialized safety team reviewed the chats, determined the user posed a credible and specific threat, and recommended notifying the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Plaintiffs allege company leaders overruled those recommendations, deactivated the account without contacting police, and later allowed the user to return by enabling a new account tied to a different email address. The complaint links that account to the shooter who killed six people at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School after killing family members at home and then dying by suicide.

M.G. was shot three times and, the complaint says, remains hospitalized with catastrophic brain injuries. The filing states she is awake and aware but cannot move or speak.

The complaint contends ChatGPT features such as memory and conversational continuity deepened the shooter’s fixation and argues that OpenAI changed its safety approach in 2024 to reduce outright refusals to discuss imminent harm.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs say multiple OpenAI employees urged that law enforcement be notified. Jay Edelson, founder of Edelson PC and lead counsel for several plaintiffs, said, “OpenAI’s own system flagged that the shooter was engaged in communications about planned violence.”

Sam Altman apologized to the Tumbler Ridge community and acknowledged that the company should have reported the banned account, according to the complaint. An OpenAI spokesperson described a zero-tolerance policy for using its tools to assist violence and outlined steps the company says it has taken, including improving ChatGPT responses to signs of distress, connecting users with local mental health resources, strengthening threat assessment and escalation procedures, and improving detection of repeat violators.

The complaint seeks damages and requests disclosure of internal information about the account and OpenAI’s handling of safety flags. The case follows other lawsuits that allege chatbots contributed to real-world violence, including a wrongful-death suit filed in December that linked a deprecated model to a killing and suicide in Connecticut.

Regulatory scrutiny has expanded. Florida’s attorney general opened an investigation into OpenAI to examine potential risks to national security, criminal misuse and child safety and indicated subpoenas are forthcoming.

The lawsuit raises legal questions about whether developers of artificial intelligence have a duty to notify law enforcement when their systems identify threats. The complaint argues OpenAI’s internal recommendations and safety flags created an obligation to alert authorities.