Linda Laroque, a soft-spoken grandmother in the tiny town of Tumbler Ridge, lives two doors down from the person who carried out one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history.
Before heading into a support group at a local church on Thursday, Laroque told AFP she was full of compassion for everyone in the shattered community of 2,400 people, including the shooter’s family.
“My heart goes out to them,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking for everyone here.”
Laroque said she met Jesse Van Rootselaar — the transgender woman who killed her mother, stepbrother and six people at the local school before shooting herself — “a few times,” but they were not close.
“How much do you know a (teenager),” said Laroque, who lived in Saudi Arabia with her oil worker husband, and in Edmonton, before settling in Tumbler Ridge 12 years ago.
Laroque’s 13-year-old granddaughter was at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School during Tuesday’s attack.
“She was locked in a closet with 16 other kids. She said it smelled like wet dog.”
Laroque said her granddaughter listened to the gunshots in the packed closet “including the last one when the shooter killed (herself).”
“She doesn’t want to go back to school,” Laroque said of her granddaughter.
“She doesn’t think she can walk into that room again.”
– ‘Softer, kinder’ –
The picturesque town in a Rocky Mountain valley has been shaken by Tuesday’s violence, which saw a 39-year-old female teacher, three 12-year-old girls and two boys, aged 13 and 12, shot dead at the school.
Residents have shown frustration at the surge of media attention, and some have expressed regret the mining town with stunning views will forever be synonymous with tragedy.
For Pastor George Rowe of the Tumbler Ridge Fellowship Baptist Church, the community’s response since Tuesday may ultimately serve to highlight its strength.
If people see a tiny community rallying together after an unimaginable nightmare, they’ll think, “there must be something there,” he said.
“This will not break us,” Rowe told AFP in his sparsely furnished church office.
“I think we’re going to be OK.”
While he remains optimistic about the future, Rowe was rattled by the hours following the attack.
He said he went to the community center once the lockdown was lifted, and sought to comfort families waiting to learn whether their children had survived.
“The silence was such that it was almost explosive,” he said.
Police said the shooter was known to have mental health challenges, and there has been significant focus in the days following the attack on difficulty accessing mental healthcare in remote northern communities like Tumbler Ridge.
This was also a concern for Laroque, who said she was worried about people suffering with no access to support.
Since Tuesday’s shooting, she’s noticed a change in people’s attitudes.
“People’s voices are softer, kinder and gentler.”
She told AFP she’s been asked in recent days if she has any plans to leave.
“Why would I want to leave?… This is an amazing place with amazing people in it.”
