OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologized to the community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, and the company faces a criminal investigation in Florida as legal scrutiny intensifies over ChatGPT's alleged role in two separate mass shootings.
In a letter released Friday, Altman said OpenAI should have reported the account belonging to Jesse Van Rootselaar after banning it in June 2025 for activity related to the “furtherance of violent activities.” The suspect allegedly killed eight people in a February 2026 mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, including her mother, stepbrother, five children, and one educator at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, before dying by suicide. Twenty-five others were injured.
“I am deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June,” Altman wrote. “While I know words can never be enough, I believe an apology is necessary to recognize the harm and irreversible loss your community has suffered.”
OpenAI said its abuse-detection systems had flagged Van Rootselaar’s account months earlier, but the company decided the activity did not meet its threshold for a credible or imminent threat of serious physical harm. The account was banned for violating usage policies.
Altman said he had spoken with Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka and British Columbia Premier David Eby, who “conveyed the anger, sadness, and concern” felt across the community.
Simultaneously, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a criminal investigation into OpenAI on April 21, alleging that ChatGPT advised the accused Florida State University shooter, Phoenix Ikner, on what gun to use, what ammunition to load, and what time to arrive on campus to encounter the most people. The April 2025 shooting at FSU killed two people and wounded five more.
“My prosecutors have looked at this and they’ve told me if it was a person on the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Uthmeier said at a Tampa press conference. “If that bot were a person, they would be charged as a principal in first-degree murder.”
More than 200 ChatGPT messages have been entered into evidence in Ikner’s case. The Office of Statewide Prosecution has subpoenaed OpenAI seeking its policies and internal training materials related to user threats of harm and its procedures for cooperating with law enforcement.
OpenAI spokesperson Kate Waters said in a statement that the company “reached out to share information about the alleged shooter’s account with law enforcement after the shooting and continues to cooperate with authorities,” adding that “ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime.”
The Florida probe opens as OpenAI prepares for a civil trial with Elon Musk in federal court this week, where Musk seeks to force the company back to nonprofit status and strip Altman of his position.
