U.S. resident charged with helping Canadian school shooter in rampage that killed 8

A 30-year-old Washington state resident was charged with providing assistance to a teenager who killed eight people in Canada, including schoolchildren, U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday.

James Cody Bryant, who the FBI said identifies as female, was arrested Tuesday and is charged with conspiracy to murder persons in a foreign country in connection with the Feb. 10 shootings in the British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge, officials said.

Prosecutors said Bryant had been in contact over Discord with the shooter, who killed five children and a teacher at a secondary school as well as two other people. He gave the shooter advice, money and offered to help livestream the killings, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Bryant ”had been in repeated contact” with the shooter, Neil Floyd, acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, said at a news conference Tuesday.

Bryant ”had the information and ability to alert law enforcement, and even discussed that possibility with the shooter — but chose not to,” Floyd said. “Instead, he encouraged and offered assistance to a murderer.”

About 2 p.m. Feb. 10, Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18, who was born male but had been transitioning to female for six years, killed her mother and…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world