VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada - The death toll in Tuesday afternoon's deadly high school shooting in Canada has been revised down to 9.

The toll includes the alleged shooter, an 18-year old local woman, Jesse Van Rootselaar.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) say they have not yet established a motive for the mass killings, however Van Rootselaar had been the subject of a number of call-outs to her home, including one where she was threatening self-harm.

"I can say that on different occasions, the suspect was apprehended for assessment and follow up," Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald of the RCMP told reporters Wednesday. Guns were seized from the home on one occasion but had to be returned  following the homeowner's court petition.

"I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly," McDonald said.

While Van Rootselaar attended the school where Tuesday afternoon's shooting took place, she had not been in attenance for the past 4 years, and there were no reports that she had been bullied, McDonald said.

Van Rootselaar's mother and step-brother were among those killed on Tuesday.

Aside from those who died, more than two dozen more people have been injured, at least two of them critically. Many students and a teacher are among the victims.

The shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, has sent shockwaves across Canada, a country not usually associated with school shootings.

"As part of the initial response to the active shooting, police entered the school to locate the threat. During the search, officers located multiple victims. An individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self‑inflicted injury," the RCMP said in a statement.

"Six additional individuals, not including the suspect, have been located deceased inside the school. Two victims have been airlifted to hospital with serious or life‑threatening injuries," the statement said. A third victim who was initially understood to have died while being transported to hospital in fact survived.

Two more people were believed to have been found dead at a home. It was later learned they were Van Rootselaar's mother and step-brother.

"We're currently ongoing with the family notification," McDonald said. "I will say, as I mentioned before, that most of our victims are quite young. Most were born at 2013, 2012."

Sergeant Vanessa Munn added at the end of the conference that the victims included three 12-year-old girls, and two boys, 12 and 13 - all students at the school.

"We are not in a place to understand why or what may have motivated this tragedy," RCMP Superintendent Ken Floyd told an earlier press briefing.

Tumbler Ridge Secondary School is situated in the small town of Tumbler Ridge, located approximately 1,000 kilometres north of Vancouver, British Columbia's largest city.  Prior to the shooting, the school had 175 students being schooled in Grades 7 to 12, while the town itself had a population of just 2,400.

"This morning, parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you. Canada stands by you," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at Parliament Hill in Ottawa Wednesday morning.

Later he posted on X: "I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens."

"Our ability to come together in crisis is the best of our country — our empathy, our unity, and our compassion for each other....The Government of Canada stands with all British Columbians as they confront this horrible tragedy," Carney said.

King Charles, in a statement said he was "profoundly shocked and saddened on hearing the news of the tragic events.

The mass killing is the worst in Canada in six years. In 2020, a gunman shot dead thirteen people, and started fires that killed 9 more.