The Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against a 30-year-old Washington man, accusing him of aiding and abetting a school shooting in Canada.
James Cody Bryant was arrested in Bellingham, Washington on Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country for his role in a spree shooting in which six people were killed and several others were injured. According to federal officials, Bryant had been talking to the shooter about their plans for months before the attack was carried out.
Shortly after the shooting, law enforcement learned Van Rootselaar had been in frequent communication with someone via the platform Discord. That person was identified as Bryant. According to the criminal complaint, Bryant and Van Rootselaar began communicating over Discord no later than August 2025, about Van Rootselaar’s plan to kill multiple people in a shooting in Canada. Numerous conversations between Bryant and Van Rootselaar are detailed in the criminal complaint. During these conversations, Bryant allegedly agreed to assist Van Rootselaar in a variety of ways: Bryant agreed to record and broadcast Van Rootselaar’s live stream of the murders; on multiple occasions, Bryant assisted Van Rootselaar in testing the livestreaming equipment to ensure it was functioning and would provide a viewable image of the planned killings; Bryant provided tactical advice on how to increase the carnage and what firearms to use; Bryant sent money to Van Rootselaar to purchase various items the shooter wanted in connection with the school attack, including a lighter that would be used to construct an explosive device detonated during the attack; mere moments before the shooting, Bryant confirmed that Bryant was receiving the livestream; and at various times Bryant advised Van Rootselaar about keeping the murder plot secret by deleting their messages and using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) for streaming the video of the shooting.
At various times leading up to the attack, Bryant assured Van Rootselaar that Bryant would not turn the shooter in to law enforcement and would be there to handle the live streaming. In various conversations between August and the February shooting, Bryant tried to talk Van Rootselaar out of doing the attack. But ultimately, Bryant did not contact law enforcement and agreed to handle the live streaming just minutes before the attack. Even after Van Rootselaar had killed two family members, there was time to intervene before the school shooting. Van Rootselaar could not get the family car started to head to the school. Bryant gave advice about how to get the engine to turn over, allowing the shooter to put the school shooting plan in motion.
The detail about Bryant trying to talk the shooter out of carrying out his plans in "various conversations" over a six-month period is curious, especially given the support and encouragement that also allegedly provided during that same time period. Assuming the DOJ's allegations are accurate, was Bryant simply trying to cover his tracks or provide plausible deniability, or did he honestly have a (temporary) change of heart on one or more occasions?
As the complaint alleges, though, ultimately Bryant did nothing to actually prevent the shooting from occurring. Based on the DOJ's allegations, he had months to do so, but instead provided aid and comfort to the killer.
If convicted at trial, Bryant could face up to life in federal prison, and if prosecutors are able to determine his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt I think that would be an entirely appropriate sentence. As Tom mentioned in his coverage of the Minnesota teen arrested and charged with planning a shooting at the Mall of America, there is an entire subculture online that glorifies mass shooters and seeks to emulate them, with body counts essentially seen as scores to be matched or topped in order to gain infamy.
According to federal prosecutors, the shooter talked with Bryant about his desire to commit Canada's deadliest school shooting, with the pair allegedly discussing which locations would produce the most casualties. That certainly suggests they both had at least a passing interest in this subculture, and may have been more deeply involved.
Was Bryant the only individual to talk with the shooter about his plans? How did the pair meet? Is there any indication that Bryant was grooming or encouraging others to commit a mass shooting?
The allegations against Bryant are deeply disturbing, and you don't have to be a parent to be alarmed by the government's account of his interactions with a teenager. The death cult that idolizes spree killers should concern all of us, and unfortunately there aren't any quick and easy solutions to combat it.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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