Shootings that took place in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, have left nine dead and 25 injured.
This impact of this attack in a small, rural region in the western Canadian province has been felt in its tight-knit community.
Six people were killed at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where Grade 12 student Darian Quist says he and his classmates “got tables and barricaded the doors” during the shooting.
“It’s hard to put into words the dread and the fear that you feel knowing that a loved one is in danger,” says Chris Norbury, a local councillor whose wife works at the school.
“We don’t lock our doors here,” Norbury says. “It is an incredibly safe community.”
“I will know every victim. I’ve been here 19 years, and we’re a small community,” says Tumbler Ridge mayor Darryl Krakowka, who describes the residents of the town his “family”.
Local journalist Trent Ernst, who was live streaming updates in the aftermath of the attack, says: “There is a sense of these things that happen elsewhere, they don’t happen here. That has been shattered.”
Source: BBC
