OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman face 30 new lawsuits filed in a California federal court by witnesses, teachers, and students of the February 2026 Tumbler Ridge mass shooting in British Columbia. The complaints escalate legal claims to aiding and abetting, alleging the company ignored internal safety warnings about the shooter.
Escalated Legal Claims and New Plaintiffs in California
These filings join seven initial lawsuits brought in April by victims and families affected by the February 10 massacre at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, which left eight people dead.
While the earlier legal actions focused primarily on negligence, this fresh wave of litigation introduces much more severe allegations. According to TechCrunch, the complaints accuse OpenAI of aiding and abetting
the mass shooting. This higher legal standard requires plaintiffs to prove intent, presenting an early hurdle in court.
The plaintiffs now include individuals who were inside the school during the attack but were not physically shot. Among them are grade-seven teacher Deidre Rushlow, an unnamed Grade 10 student who stepped over a victim’s body during evacuation, a school principal, and a 13-year-old identified as A C who played dead while witnessing classmates and a teacher killed, according to Yahoo News Canada.
Deidre Rushlow, Grade 7 English and Humanities teacher, stated via Rice Parson Leoni and Elliott that she and her colleagues were haunted by the memory of shielding children with their own bodies as their ears rang from the sound of continual gunshots and high-pitched screams, adding that an entire generation of young lives was gone in a second.
Internal Warnings and the Alleged Decision to Stay Silent
At the center of the lawsuits are allegations regarding how OpenAI handled safety flags generated by its automated systems months before the attack. An internal safety team reviewed the flagged logs and recommended referring the information to Canadian law enforcement.
The lawsuits allege that leadership prioritized reputational and financial standing over public safety. Lead Canadian counsel John Rice stated that the company had a clear opportunity to stop the attack before it unfolded.
John Rice, lead Canadian counsel, stated via Rice Parson Leoni and Elliott that based on what they understood the shooter to have discussed with ChatGPT, that murderous rampage was specific, predictable, and preventable.
Corporate Defense and Leadership Denials
OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman—who is named as a defendant in the lawsuits—have faced intense public criticism since details of the pre-incident safety flags emerged. In April, Altman penned a public letter to the Tumbler Ridge community apologizing that the company failed to alert law enforcement.
Responding to the latest 30 complaints, OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon posted a statement on X. Kwon pushed back strongly against claims that executive interference or public relations concerns influenced safety protocols, calling assertions about Lehane’s involvement entirely false.
Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer at OpenAI, stated that it was absolutely false to say Chris Lehane was involved with their original referral decision, or that their investigators reported to him in any way, while adding that it was also completely untrue to say that the people at the center of those challenging decisions did not prioritize safety, or that there were political or public relations factors at play.
Kwon maintained that the company’s intelligence and investigations team operates under rigorous standards to balance user privacy with threat identification, acknowledging that while human judgment is not infallible, it is always rooted in safety for users and the public.
Broader Legal Fallout and What Comes Next
The legal challenges facing OpenAI extend far beyond the Tumbler Ridge litigation. Additionally, the company faces a separate lawsuit in Florida over an April 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University, alongside several other U.S. and Canadian complaints alleging that ChatGPT fostered delusions or encouraged users toward self-harm and suicide.
For the plaintiffs in the California federal court, the immediate legal demands go beyond financial compensation. Legal teams are asking the court to compel the release of Van Rootselaar’s complete messaging history with ChatGPT alongside internal corporate records detailing why authorities were never notified. Plaintiffs also hope to secure safety reforms that mandate reporting foreseeable acts of violence to law enforcement across major online platforms.
