(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The transgender Canadian who murdered his mother, half-brother, five students and a teacher before killing himself in a mass shooting on Tuesday went “crazy” on psychedelic mushrooms last year, and had numerous encounters with law enforcement over the last decade, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reported Saturday that 18-year-old school shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar—a biological male who went mostly by the name Jesse Strang—was “well-known to the local police,” due in large part to mental health issues.
The Canadian trans mass shooter went into a "dangerous psychosis" last year from taking mushrooms, per the Wall Street Journal.
The shooter had also been in touch w/ local police over last decade due to mental health issues.
Authorities still investigating how he got the firearms pic.twitter.com/r5a7am10kB— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) February 15, 2026
“More than once, police said, Van Rootselaar was apprehended for assessment under the province’s mental-health law,” the Journal reported. “But she always returned home. At one point, guns being kept in the residence were taken by police and later given back when someone living there petitioned for them.”
Rootselaar, who simulated a mass shooting on the online gaming platform Roblox, seems to have had a rough childhood. His life was reportedly “uprooted” numerous times, including once when his mother took her across the country against his father’s wishes—an action a judge later described as “reprehensible conduct.”
Rootselaar’s mental health apparently deteriorated in his teenage years, compounded by the use of narcotics. At one point, he posted online that he “went crazy and burnt my house down” after her second time trying psychedelic mushrooms—adding that the shrooms “made me go straight into dangerous psychosis,” according to the Journal.
Police are reportedly still investigating how Rootselaar obtained the four firearms he used in last week’s attack.
“The two guns believed to have been the primary ones used were never previously seized by police and are unregistered,” the Journal added.
Read more about Rootselaar here:
EXCLUSIVE – Our deep dive into the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter's online footprint revealed a familiar radicalization pathway.
18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed 6 kids aged 11-13 along with a teacher and his own mother before taking his own life.
There are a lot of… pic.twitter.com/C3B5lCwnJn
— Bx (@bx_on_x) February 13, 2026
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
