Chilling new details are emerging after the school shooting in Canada — from old family photos to earlier warning signs that now look impossible to ignore. Authorities are piecing together what happened before the tragedy that left eight dead and dozens injured. The question haunting everyone now is: what unfolded in the days leading up to it — and could this have been prevented

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Transgender Canadian school shooter who slaughtered 8, including mom and stepbrother, seen holding rifle in eerie photo

The transgender high school dropout who gunned down his mother and stepbrother before killing six others at a British Columbia, Canada school was seen for the first time in resurfaced photos posted by his family – including one eerie snap showing the smiling teen holding a rifle.

Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old ex-student who went on a gun-wielding rampage at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, was spotted straight-faced in several pictures posted by his grandmother on Facebook for his 14th birthday.

“Happy 14th birthday to our grandson Jesse !! Love you always !! XOXO,” the post from August 2021 read.

Jesse Van Rootselaar with rifle
Canadian mass shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar seen holding a rifle in an undated photo.Facebook
Jesse Strang with two birthday cakes.
Canadian authorities have said Van Rootselaar underwent mental health treatment.

Another chilling picture howed Van Rootselaar showing off a rifle and bearing a wide grin while sitting on the couch with another young child.

Van Rootselaar launched the horrifying attack at a private residence in the remote community before continuing the carnage at the high school, where authorities said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Van Rootselaar was “born a biological male … who approximately six years ago began to transition to female, and identified as female.”

Van Rootselaar was known to authorities, as police had visited the family home several times over the years, over concerns about his mental health, according to McDonald.

Jennifer Strang smiling in a car.
Van Rootselaar killed his mother Jennifer Strang (pictured) and stepbrother before killing six others at the school.
Jesse Strang with two birthday cakes.
The killer killed his mother and stepbrother before his massacre at the school.

Firearms had also been seized from the home, but the lawful owner — who McDonald did not name — successfully petitioned to have them returned.

A long gun and a modified handgun were recovered at the school, though it is unclear if those weapons were the ones that had previously been confiscated.

An initial alert issued about an active shooter at the school on Tuesday afternoon described the shooter as a “female in a dress.”

A young person with short brown hair, wearing a blue "STAR WARS" t-shirt, holds a small brown chicken in their hands.
An initial alert issued about an active shooter at the school on Tuesday afternoon described the shooter as a “female in a dress.”

Six people were discovered dead inside the school, and the bodies of his mother, who was identified by CTV news as 39-year-old Jennifer Strang, and his stepbrother, 11, were also found dead at a private residence.

Roughly 25 others were wounded during the chaotic shooting — with terrified students and teachers recalling how they barricaded themselves in classrooms for over two hours before being escorted out of the school.

The mass shooting would rank as one of the deadliest in Canadian history. In 1989, a gunman killed 14 students at L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal.

The country has implemented strong gun control measures in response to mass shootings, including recently broadening a ban on guns considered to be assault weapons.