U.S. court denies bail to alleged Tumbler Ridge shooting conspirator James Bryant

A court in Seattle, Wash., has denied bail to James Bryant, who is accused of conspiring with Jesse Van Rootselaar, the shooter in the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass killing in February. 

Emily Langlie with the Department of Justice says Bryant was ordered detained on Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Federal prosecutors successfully argued to keep Bryant behind bars, alleging in a written submission that the resident from Bellingham, Wash., "helped plan a mass murder over the course of several months" and would present a danger to the community if released.

Prosecutors filed a memorandum with the court that said Bryant's communications with Van Rootselaar included messages expressing "disapproval" of the teenage shooter's attack plans. 

But Bryant allegedly promised not to "snitch," which favoured the denial of bail, the document said. 

"Anyone whose character allows them to help plan a mass shooting and then sits back and (literally) tries to watch as schoolchildren are murdered, instead of 'snitching' on the killer, is a danger to the community and should be detained pending trial," the memo said.

Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother on Feb. 10 this year before driving to the high school where she murdered five students and an education assistant before she killed herself. 

The document said Bryant's communications were primarily online, and said no release conditions could be enforced to "ensure that Bryant does not pose continuing threat to the community through online behaviour."

Bryant's public defender lawyers Dennis Carroll and Gregory Murphy referred to Bryant by female pronouns and say she goes by the name Melody.

They argued in a written submission that Bryant should be released because she has no criminal record, and has stable housing and employment and "strong community ties."

The defence response to the government's detention memo said the evidence against Bryant is "hard to assess," because much of it includes a "voluminous" number of online messages exchanged over the Discord platform that have not been disclosed. 

The response said law enforcement had much of that evidence in its possession for seven months before Bryant's arrest. 

"Then, for seven months, investigators left Ms. Bryant in the community without any restrictions on her movement or access to the internet," the document says. 

"There is no reason to suspect that Ms. Bryant has chatted, or could chat, with another person planning another horrifying crime. Indeed, if that danger were real, the government would not have left Ms. Bryant in the community for seven months before arresting her." 

Bryant, the response said, voluntarily met with investigators and there's no evidence she "initiated the planning or engaged in any violence" in relation to the attack that left eight victims dead, and instead "repeatedly tried to dissuade Van Rootselaar from committing mass murder."

Bryant's public defender, Dennis Carroll, was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2026.

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