British Columbia sued OpenAI and Sam Altman in San Francisco federal court on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, alleging ChatGPT safety flags were not reported to police before the Feb. 10 Tumbler Ridge school shooting. The province seeks damages to fund recovery and a court order overhauling how OpenAI handles flagged threats. The suit turns OpenAI's own internal safety flags into a negligence claim against the company and Altman.
This is not a training-data copyright case. The province's claim is negligence and failure to notify law enforcement: it says OpenAI knew of threats flagged on its platform before the attack and did not alert police in time.
According to the lawsuit, OpenAI's safety team first flagged Jesse Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT activity in June 2025, recommended contacting police, and was overruled by leadership including Altman. The suit also alleges the account was deactivated but that activity continued on a new account. Those are the province's allegations, and no court has ruled on them.
Attorney General Niki Sharma said the filing raises questions about technology companies' responsibilities when they learn of credible threats of serious violence, and that OpenAI has not taken meaningful steps to address community concerns. OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri called the shooting an unspeakable tragedy and said the company remains committed to working with government and law enforcement and advancing its safety work. OpenAI earlier told reporters that its systems flagged the account for misuse tied to violent activities, but that the issues did not meet its internal criteria for reporting to law enforcement.
Eight victims died in the attack, which took place on Feb. 10, 2026. The shooter died by suicide, and some tallies use a nine-person total that can include the shooter. The provincial suit follows more than 30 California federal cases by families and survivors. It is not yet clear how the San Francisco court will treat the claims, or whether OpenAI will change how it reports threats to outside authorities while the case goes on.