Trans-Identifying American Arrested For Plotting With Canadian Trans School Shooter

The FBI arrested a gender-confused American man for aiding the Canadian transgender-identifying man who murdered eight people during a shooting rampage earlier this year. 

The Justice Department announced charges Tuesday against 30-year-old transgender-identifying James Cody Bryant over accusations that he helped plot the attack on a rural Canadian school carried out by 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar in February 2026. Bryant agreed to livestream the shooting and offered tactical and material support for Van Rootselaar to carry out the massacre, according to prosecutors. 

On February 10, 2026, Van Rootselaar murdered his mother and 11-year-old stepbrother before traveling to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, where he killed five children and one school employee. Van Rootselaar, who police first referred to as a “gunperson,” committed suicide during the attack. 

Bryant identified as transgender, officials with the Justice Department confirmed during a press briefing on the arrest. He has been charged with conspiracy to murder a person in a foreign country. 

The FBI linked Bryant to the shooting after Discord turned over messages between Van Rootselaar and an account associated with him. The FBI interviewed him at his home in Bellingham, Washington, on February 12, two days after the shooting. 

The criminal complaint, filed by FBI special agent Joseph Rico, says that in August 2025, Bryant agreed to livestream the planned attack on the internet. Bryant also allegedly told Van Rootselaar to avoid hallways so people could not escape, to carry a handgun during the attack, and told him that “you’ve got solid plans.”

“Hallways also mean a lot of ways people can escape. Corners to turn. Wide open spaces means numbers,” Bryant said, according to the criminal complaint. 

“Bryant further confirmed that Bryant had been communicating with Van Rootselaar during the months prior to the murders and had viewed Van Rootselaar’s attempted livestream of the attack,” the criminal complaint says. “Bryant also admitted to assisting Van Rootselaar in testing the livestream equipment. Bryant explained that Van Rootselaar had purchased a tactical chest rig designed to carry additional firearm magazines.”

The two apparently got to know each other online starting when Van Rootselaar was 15 and Bryant was in his late 20s. 

Throughout the months leading up to the attack, Bryant allegedly suggested that they should use a VPN to cover their digital footprint and take steps to delete their messages. “I think we should find a way to delete all our messages,” he said, according to a message included in the complaint.  

Bryant also suggested that Van Rootselaar target a church or grocery store to avoid targeting young kids, the complaint said. 

Just a few weeks before the murders, Bryant allegedly sent Van Rootselaar money for a lighter that he intended to put on an explosive device he “planned to detonate during the murders,” the complaint said. Repeatedly in the weeks leading up to the attack, messages show Bryant telling Van Rootselaar that he would not “snitch” on him to law enforcement. 

The criminal complaint, filed on October 2, referred to Van Rootselaar as a female. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington plans to file an amended complaint with the correct pronouns, The Daily Wire has learned. 

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