By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-07 15:41:52 | Updated at 2026-10-07 22:44:21
12 hours ago
U.S. authorities on Tuesday arrested a man in Washington State accused of allegedly providing assistance to the teenage perpetrator of the February mass school shooting in Canada.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western District of Washington announced that James Cody Bryant, a 30-year-old resident of Bellingham, Washington, was arrested on a criminal complaint charging him with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country — punishable by up to life in prison.
Bryant identifies as a “transgender woman” and he goes by the name Melody, as reportedly confirmed by the FBI on Tuesday.
It is alleged Bryant was in frequent communications with Jesse Van Rootselaar, another transgender teenager and perpetrator of the gruesome February 10 Canada school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia.
On that day, Van Rootselaar killed his mother and stepbrother at their home before driving to the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where he shot and killed five children and an educational assistant. Van Rootselaar later committed suicide after exchanging gunfire with local police.
Subsequent investigations determined that Bryant and Van Rootselaar began communicating via the messaging platform Discord no later than August 2025, six months before the school shooting. During said communications, the U.S. Attorney’s Office detailed, Van Rootsellar detailed his plans to “kill multiple people in a shooting in Canada.”
A woman mourns at a makeshift memorial for the victims of a February 10 deadly mass shooting that took place at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, in the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, on February 13, 2026. (Paige Taylor White / AFP via Getty Images)
Some of the chat messages found by investigators involve Bryant allegedly agreeing to assist Van Rootselaar in a “variety of ways,” including, but not limited to, recording and broadcasting a live stream of the murders, testing the equipment that would provide a “viewable” image of the planned shooting, and even tactical advice for the attack.
Additionally, it is understood Bryant allegedly provided a little over $100 to Van Rootselaar to purchase a lighter and a pair of shoes that the perpetrator “wanted to have” when he conducted the shooting.
“So even after the shooter had already tragically killed two family members, Bryant assisted the shooter in successfully traveling to the second location to take even more lives,” FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge W. Mike Herrington said on Tuesday, per Fox News.
“In the complaint, Bryant even admits to being maybe the only one who could stop the shooter,” he added.
Herrington also confirmed both Bryant and Van Rootselar identified as transgender, with the now-arrested 30-year-old man identifying as “female.”
“Bryant had the information and ability to alert law enforcement, and even discussed that possibility with the shooter, but he chose not to,” Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said on a Tuesday press conference. “Instead, he encouraged and offered assistance to a murderer.”
According to Fox News, the two individuals reportedly first met through a random pairing on the online chat service Omegle roughly three years before the February shooting.
It is reportedly understood that investigators have no indication whether or not Bryant and Van Rootselaar met in person, what their transgender identities were, and why they remained in contact.
