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Family of girl, 12, remembers 'beautiful, kind, innocent soul' killed in Tumbler Ridge mass shooting
The aunt of Tumbler Ridge mass shooting victim Kylie May Smith said their family’s world “crumbled” when they learned the 12-year-old girl was among the dead.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, Shanon Dykce said that her niece “didn’t make it out” when the shooter arrived at the local high school and killed six people a day earlier.
“We are completely devastated and have no words as we try to process the magnitude of the situation,” Dycke wrote on a GoFundMe campaign to support the family.
She explained that Smith’s mother, Desirae Pisarski, who had recently moved to Vancouver Island after nearly 12 years in Tumbler Ridge, “hasn’t seen her daughter in a few months.” The girl lives in the tiny northeastern B.C. town with her father and stepmother, along with a stepbrother and her brother, who only just returned north recently. Dycke said he “will need his mom more than ever right now.”
Funds raised will support the family’s expenses in the coming weeks and pay for a fitting memorial for Smith, “to remember the beautiful, kind, innocent soul she was.”
“My heart aches for the other families involved and for the loss of their children. I am so sorry,” she added in the GoFundMe post.
“To the families with children still in the hospital; keep fighting. We are sending you prayers.”
Dycke declined to comment further when contacted by National Post.
A total of nine people were killed and at least 27 more were injured on Tuesday when the shooter, now identified by the RCMP as 18-year-old Tumbler Ridge resident Jesse Van Rootselaar, carried out the attack. Police believe Van Rootselaar died of a self-inflicted injury inside the school after the shooting.
Six people were killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, an adult female teacher, three female students — including Smith — and two male students, one of whom was identified in a Facebook post by his father as 12-year-old Abel Mwansa .
Two more people — whom police believe are Rootselaar’s mother and stepbrother — were found dead at nearby home.
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