A killer in Canada has been charged after allegedly shooting her mother and 11-year-old stepbrother to death in a case that has shaken a small Alberta town.
Police say the violence unfolded earlier this month in Taber, Alberta, where 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar is accused of fatally shooting her 39-year-old mother and younger stepbrother inside their family home.Authorities allege that after the killings, the accused went to St. Mary’s School, where she was a student, and discharged a firearm on school grounds. No one at the school was physically injured, though the incident prompted an immediate lockdown and a large police response.
Van Rootselaar was taken into custody shortly after the school incident and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder along with multiple firearms-related offences.In Taber, a tight-knit agricultural community, the shock has been profound. Residents are mourning the loss of a mother and young boy whose lives ended inside the place they called home, while parents and students grapple with the fear and confusion that followed at the school.
As the case moves through the courts, the town is left facing painful questions — and the difficult task of healing from a tragedy that has altered it forever.
