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As the stunned community of Tumbler Ridge struggles to absorb the magnitude of its loss, questions to public officials have returned again and again to the theme that always haunts tragedies like this: how could something like this happen?

Leaders, from the prime minister and top policing brass down to the mayor, promised answers to those questions in due course, but said the community's immediate focus would be on families who lost sons, daughters and friends.

Here's what we know about the victims.

Those found inside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School:

Those found in the home on Fellers Avenue:

Surviving victims:

Wendy Cocchia, B.C.’s lieutenant governor, has just entered the legislature chambers in Victoria ahead of what is expected to be a sombre throne speech at 2 p.m. PT. She arrived after MLAs held a formal moment of silence at the legislature at noon.

The speech from the throne is usually a celebratory occasion — a traditional affair featuring a red carpet and cannons — that lays out the government's agenda for the coming session.

Today's event is very different. Cocchia entered the legislature quietly via the inconspicuous east entrance, instead of the large iron gates at the ceremonial front entrance. 

Poilievre will be travelling to Tumbler Ridge tomorrow on the government plane with Carney, the Opposition leader's office has confirmed. Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon said today all of the federal party leaders have been invited.

"How do we protect them from things unforeseen like that?" he said. "There’s no real answer, I guess. But there's got to be a better way to protect our children."

He says he knows the parents whose children were killed. 

"It's hard. They're good people," he said.

Abel Jr. Was born in Zambia in 2013, a year after his parents married.

"It happened that we had a boy and I was just so excited," the boy's dad said. "I ended up giving him my name."

The family moved to Canada in March 2023 when Mwansa accepted a mining job. Mwansa described his son as "ambitious" and a "leader."

"Just such a good boy," he said, adding his son was always smiling.  "It was so genuine."

In a statement, Zambia's minister of foreign affairs said the republic was profoundly shocked by the shooting and "especially heartbroken" by Mwansa's death.

Carney will visit Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Friday, all party leaders invited: MacKinnon

Responding to Conservative MP Andrew Scheer during Thursday's question period, Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon said Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Friday to attend a vigil in memory of the victims of Tuesday's shooting which left nine dead and more than 25 injured.

The Prime Minister's Office has just told us that Mark Carney will travel to Tumbler Ridge tomorrow to attend a vigil.

The prime minister was invited by the mayor, the notice from the PMO said, but other party leaders are also invited to attend.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said earlier this morning that he would be going.

Maya Gebala, who was wounded in the shooting at the school, was flown to B.C. Children’s Hospital with critical injuries.

On Tuesday, the girl’s mother, Cia Edmonds, shared on social media that the family had been warned Maya "wouldn't make the night."

"I cannot reply to the mountain of messages we've recieved,” Edmonds wrote, saying they are grateful “for all the love and support.” "Our baby needs a miracle."

People across Canada have offered best wishes to Maya and her family, including Canadian hockey legend Hayley Wickenheiser. 

On X, Wickenheiser asked the hockey community to support the "little hockey player from Tumbler Ridge."

In response to what’s happening in Tumbler Ridge, the health authority in northern B.C. Says a free, twice-daily shuttle between Fort St. John and Tumbler Ridge will be made available for patients accessing services and for health authority staff travelling between communities. 

Fort St. John is about 124 kilometres north of Tumbler Ridge — a two-hour drive. 

The bus can take up to 25 passengers, is wheelchair accessible and has a washroom on board.

The first bus from Fort St. John into Tumbler Ridge left at 3 a.m. MT today, according to Northern Health. 

Just a few weeks ago, Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka expressed concerns about available ambulances.

A second one was stationed in the community to take patients needing care outside the local emergency department's hours to the closest hospital. But B.C. Emergency Health Services data shows those two ambulances are not always staffed. 

From September to December, shifts for one ambulance were filled 92 per cent of the time, while shifts for the second were filled 83 per cent of the time.

"That means there's days that we don't have an ambulance or we don't have a second ambulance," Krakowka says.

Emergency health care is quite limited in Tumbler Ridge — the emergency department is only open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. 

It's something residents have been critical of in recent months as the community struggles with a lack of health-care professionals overall.

We just finished an interview with Quebec MP Nathalie Provost, Carney's secretary of state for nature and a survivor of the 1989 École Polytechnique mass shooting.

Provost told host Catherine Cullen that Tumbler Ridge survivors "need a place to cry" and express "incomprehensible" feelings.

"If I would be with them, I would just stand there as an adult capable to receive [those feelings]. And they will need it now, but they will need it for a long period of time.

"What I remember vividly right after the [École Polytechnique shooting] and in the two, three years after was waves. It's big, big waves that just gently over time calm down. But at the beginning, it's a tornado — it's crazy."

Asked for her thoughts on information the RCMP has shared in the Tumbler Ridge case — including the shooter's history of mental health problems and the guns found at the scene — Provost said, "I know we will have to go to that discussion. For me, it's a bit soon."

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