Washington resident charged with conspiracy in Canada school shooting pleads not guilty

SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state resident charged with conspiracy in one of the worst school shootings in Canada’s history pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday.

Melody Bryant, also known as James Cody Bryant, of Bellingham, Washington, was arrested this month and charged with conspiring to murder people in a foreign country. Investigators said she provided assistance to Jesse Van Rootselaar, who killed eight people and wounded 27 in the mountain community of Tumbler Ridge in February.

Bryant declined to report Van Rootselaar’s plans, agreed to distribute a livestream of the attack, provided money and shared advice on how to delete online messages to keep the plot a secret, according to a criminal complaint filed this month in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Bryant is being detained pending her trial, which is set for Dec. 21 but likely to be delayed. Her attorney, public defender Greg Murphy, has stressed that at some points Bryant tried to dissuade Van Rootselaar from carrying out an attack — a fact that investigators acknowledge.

Van Rootselaar killed her mother and stepbrother at home before attacking a nearby secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, killing five children ages 12 and 13 as well as an educational assistant. Van Rootselaar was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Tumbler Ridge in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, British Columbia, near the provincial border with Alberta.