Mom of girl, 12, shot in the head during Canada school shooting gives heartbreaking update!
The small community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, remains shrouded in a heavy, suffocating silence following the events of Tuesday, February 10, 2026. What was supposed to be a standard morning at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School transformed into a theater of unimaginable violence, marking the fourth deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history. Among the nine lives lost and twenty-seven injured is twelve-year-old Maya, a vibrant student whose fight for survival has become a focal point of national grief and resilience.
Maya is currently fighting for her life in a specialized unit at Vancouver Children’s Hospital. Airlifted from the remote northern interior to the coast in critical condition, the young girl is being treated for devastating gunshot wounds to her head and neck. Her mother, Cia Edmonds, has become a voice for the agonizing reality facing the families of the survivors, providing updates from a bedside that no parent should ever have to occupy.
“I’m writing this sitting in Vancouver Children’s Hospital while my daughter fights for her life,” Edmonds shared in a poignant social media post that has since been shared thousands of times. She described the jarring shift from a normal Tuesday morning routine to the frantic, terrifying reality of neurosurgery and life support. Despite the horror, Edmonds’ words were laced with a tragic sense of perspective, acknowledging that while Maya is in a battle for her existence, she is “a lucky one” compared to the families who are now planning funerals for the nine victims who did not make it out of the school.
The medical challenges Maya faces are monumental. Her cousin, Krysta Hunt, clarified the specifics of Maya’s condition in a recent statement, noting that the primary focus for the surgical team has been a life-threatening brain bleed. Surgeons worked for hours to repair the damage and mitigate the pressure on her brain, and the family is now in a period of “watchful waiting” to see how her neurological system responds to the intervention. There is also the lingering complication of a second wound in her neck; doctors are still determining the trajectory of that bullet and whether it can be safely removed or if it has caused further damage to her spinal column or vascular system.
Maya’s survival through the first seventy-two hours is being hailed as a minor miracle by those close to her. “She wasn’t sure she would make it through the night,” Hunt remarked, referring to the grim prognosis given upon her arrival in Vancouver. “The fact that she has shown this much progress already speaks to her spirit. She’s a fighter.”
As Maya battles in the ICU, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have begun the grim task of reconstructing the shooter’s path. Authorities have identified eighteen-year-old Jesse van Rootselaar as the gunman. The investigation suggests a planned, multi-stage attack that began at his family home, where he allegedly murdered his mother and stepbrother before driving to the secondary school. The rampage ended when van Rootselaar was found dead at the scene from a self-inflicted wound. Investigators are currently scouring his digital footprint and personal history to understand the “why” behind such a catastrophic failure of peace, though for the families in the hospital waiting rooms, the motive matters far less than the recovery of their children.
The tragedy has prompted an outpouring of communal support. A GoFundMe campaign, established to assist the Edmonds family with the massive costs of medical care, travel, and long-term rehabilitation, has already surpassed $255,000. For Maya, the road ahead will be measured in years, not weeks. Traumatic brain injuries of this magnitude require extensive specialized care, and the funds are seen as a vital lifeline for a family whose world was upended in a matter of seconds.
Beyond the hospital walls, the Tumbler Ridge shooting has reignited a fierce national debate regarding school safety protocols and the efficacy of current firearm legislation. In a country that prides itself on being a safer alternative to its southern neighbor, the reality of a fourth mass shooting of this scale has shaken the Canadian psyche. Mental health advocates are also pointing to the shooter’s history, urging for more proactive intervention systems for at-risk youth.
However, in Vancouver, the politics and the statistics fade into the background. There, the world is reduced to the size of a sterile hospital room, the rhythmic hum of a ventilator, and the steady beep of a heart monitor. The focus remains entirely on a twelve-year-old girl who, just days ago, was worried about homework and friendships, and who is now the face of a town’s collective hope.
Vigils have been held across British Columbia, with candles flickering in the cold mountain air of Tumbler Ridge and along the rainy streets of Vancouver. The tragedy has left the community of less than 3,000 people reeling, as nearly everyone in the town is connected in some way to the students or staff at the school. In the face of such darkness, the strength shown by Maya’s mother and the resilience of the young girl herself have become a beacon for others.
As the investigation continues to unfold, more details will inevitably emerge about the failures that allowed Jesse van Rootselaar to carry out his plan. But for now, the Edmonds family asks for only one thing: continued prayers and thoughts for a little girl who refused to give up in the dark. The story of Maya is not yet finished, and as she continues to defy the odds in the ICU, she represents the fragile, stubborn persistence of life in the aftermath of the unthinkable.