OpenAI CEO Sam Altman “deeply sorry” for failing to alert law enforcement to Canada school shooter’s ChatGPT account

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized to members of a Canadian community where a mass shooting took place earlier this year for not reporting the ChatGPT account of the shooter to law enforcement.

“The pain your community has endured is unimaginable,” Altman wrote in a letter shared Friday on social media by British Columbia Premier David Eby. “I’ve thought of you often these past few months.”

Eight people were killed in the February 10 massacre in the small community of Tumbler Ridge in northeastern British Columbia. Six people were shot and killed when Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, opened fire at Tumbler Ridge High School, authorities said, and the gunman’s mother and 11-year-old brother were killed at a nearby residence. Van Rootselaar died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

Altman wrote in the letter dated Thursday that Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account was banned in June 2025, about eight months before the shooting.

“I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement about the account that was banned in June,” Altman said.

In February, OpenAI told CBS News that Van Rootselaar’s account was flagged last year by automated abuse detection tools and human investigators who identified potential misuses of ChatGPT for violent activity. OpenAI said the account was later banned for violating its usage policies.

OpenAI said the company considered whether to report the account to law enforcement, but determined at the time that it did not pose an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others, having not met the threshold for referral.

“Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy,” OpenAI said in a statement to CBS News in February after the shooting. “We have proactively contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to provide them with information about the individual and their use of ChatGPT, and we will continue to support their investigation.”

OpenAI claims that ChatGPT is trained to discourage actual harm and is instructed to refuse assistance when it detects illicit intent. Users who indicate plans to harm others are reported to human reviewers who determine whether a case presents an imminent threat of physical harm and should be referred to law enforcement, according to the company.

Altman wrote in his letter that OpenAI would remain focused on prevention efforts “to ensure that something like this never happens again.”

“I want to express my deepest condolences to the entire community,” Altman said. “No one should ever have to suffer such a tragedy.”

Earlier this week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announcement a criminal investigation into OpenAI after reviewing messages between ChatGPT and a Florida State University student accused in April 2025 campus shooting which killed two people and injured several others.

Uthmeier said his team determined that ChatGPT offered “important advice” to the suspected shooter. His office issues subpoenas to OpenAI requesting records of the company’s protocols for reporting possible crimes to law enforcement and its handling of user threats.

Regarding the Florida shooting, an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News on Tuesday that “upon learning of the incident,” it “identified a ChatGPT account believed to be associated with the suspect and proactively shared this information with law enforcement.”