US man arrested in connection with deadly British Columbia school shooting

US man arrested over deadly British Columbia school shooting

Eight people, among them six children, were killed in the February mass shooting

US authorities have taken into custody a 30-year-old American man in connection with a deadly school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, earlier this year.

Prosecutors at the US Department of Justice said the man was charged in Washington state with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country.

They said they would provide further details about the case at a joint news conference with Canadian authorities on Monday afternoon.

Eight people, including six children, died in the February attack, one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canadian history. Authorities said it was carried out by 18-year-old Jessie Van Rootselaar, a resident of the small town.

The shooting took place at the suspect's residence and a secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, a town of 2,300 residents.

US authorities have not yet disclosed the name of the American man accused.

Van Roostelaar died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound during the attack.

Police said Van Rootselaar was known to law enforcement because of a history of mental health-related visits over the years to the suspect's home.

Van Rootselaar's mother and 11-year-old stepbrother were also killed, along with five young children and an educator at the school.

Several lawsuits have since been filed over the attack.

After it was revealed that Van Roostelaar had consulted ChatGPT before the attack, the province of British Columbia, along with some victim's families, sued technology giant OpenAI for allegedly failing to notify authorities about the shooter's interactions with the chatbot.

In April, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman apologised to the families of the victims.

"I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement," Altman wrote in an open letter.