Remote community grieves the 8 killed in Canada’s deadliest attack in years

TUMBLER RIDGE, British Columbia (AP) — The father of a 12-year-old victim of the mass shooting in a remote Canadian town tearfully recounted the desperate hours spent trying to learn what happened to her, only to find out from an older girl, not the authorities.

Lance Younge told CTV News on Wednesday that his son Ethan texted “I love you” shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday and then called a short time later to say he was hiding in a utility room at his school in the small mountain community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, but that he didn’t know where his sister Kylie was.

The family would find out hours later that Kylie Smith was one of the eight victims, mostly children, who were killed in attacks at the school and the home of the 18-year-old shooting suspect, who died from an apparent self-inflicted wound.

While looking for Kylie, Younge said he walked around the local recreation center where students were reuniting with their families for about six hours, but that police wouldn’t tell him anything.

“I went home not knowing where my daughter was until a high school kid … came here and told us her story about trying to save my daughter’s life,” he said. “The police didn’t tell us anything. We had to find out through the community and through kids and rumors in the stands.”