A lawyer representing victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting says the lawsuit against OpenAI could end up asking for more than $1 billion.
The lawyer, Jay Edelson, is based in Chicago and has handled several wrongful death cases involving OpenAI. He said this particular case stands out as the most serious his firm has dealt with.
He’s acting as U.S. co-counsel for victims and their families, who filed multiple wrongful death lawsuits in California.
In total, there are seven related cases, all accusing OpenAI of failing to alert authorities, which contributed to what happened.
The shooting itself happened on February 10, when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed eight people before taking her own life.
After the incident, OpenAI acknowledged that its staff had noticed concerning behavior from her through interactions with ChatGPT before the attack. However, they didn’t report it to police.
The company later apologized publicly for that decision.
The lawsuits include several victims and family members. One of them is 12-year-old Maya Gebala, who survived but suffered a serious head injury, along with the father of Abel Mwansa Jr., another 12-year-old who was killed.
The legal team representing the families, Rice Parsons Leoni & Elliott LLP, said part of the reason they filed the cases in California is because Canadian laws limit how much compensation families can receive.
In British Columbia, damages for pain and suffering are capped, and in some situations families of children who were killed may not be able to claim compensation at all under provincial laws.
Altman’s apology came after it was revealed that OpenAI had flagged the shooter’s account months earlier but didn’t notify law enforcement.
However, not everyone has accepted the apology.
Cia Edmonds, the mother of Maya Gebala, criticized the company’s response and felt that failing to alert police put the community at risk.
She also questioned the sincerity of Altman’s apology as it came across as impersonal.
The victims and their families say OpenAI knew about the situation but chose not to tell police, because adding stronger safety measures could potentially hurt the company’s business.
They also said shutting down the shooter’s account didn’t really solve anything, as the user could just make a new account.
OpenAI later acknowledged that Jesse Van Rootselaar had actually made another account as the one he initially used was banned.
