The first of the many heroes who came to the aid of Maya Gebala and Abel Mwansa Jr. after last month’s devastating Tumbler Ridge school shooting was one of their classmates, according to Bob Zimmer, MP for the tiny town beset by tragedy.
In Mwansa Jr.’s final moments of life after being grievously wounded, the 12-year-old was apparently thinking only of his mother and father and how much he loved them.
Tuesday morning in Ottawa, Zimmer told the story of the innocent boy’s touching final message for his parents that was conveyed to them by a 12-year-old girl who he said heroically tried to pull Mwansa Jr. and Gebala to safety after suspect Jesse Van Rootselaar had shot them on Feb. 10.
“‘Tell my mom and dad that I love them.’ Christina promised Abel Jr. she would pass it on and she did,” an emotional Zimmer told attendees at the 60th National Prayer Breakfast.
“The tragic yet beautiful words from a beloved son to his beloved parents.”
The Conservative MP for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies didn’t use Christina’s surname, but he was clearly moved by the “shy” girl’s heroic deeds.
“The tragic, yet beautiful words from a beloved son to his beloved parents,”
“…beautiful words they wouldn’t have known except for a promise kept by his heroic classmate, Christina.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18#PrayforMaya #TumblerRidgeStrong #Jesus pic.twitter.com/9YwiFumnGI— Bob Zimmer (@bobzimmermp) March 25, 2026
As reported, when the shooting began, Gebala — who remains in critical, but stable condition at Vancouver hospital after being shot in the head and neck — tried to lock the door to the library but was unable. She, Mwansa Jr. and several others were shot.
“Christina, during the shooting, grabbed wounded Maya in her left arm… and grabbed Abel Junior in her right arm… and proceeded to pull them both under the table for protection,” Zimmer recounted.
“She held them both and was there for about 30 minutes while the shooting continued in the aftermath that followed.”
Mwansa Jr. didn’t survive the shooting that day, nor did classmates Kylie Smith (12), Zoey Benoit (12), Ticaria Lampert (12), Ezekiel Schofield (13), and 39-year-old education assistant Shannda Aviugana-Durand. Police also found the shooter’s mother, 39-year-old Jennifer Jacobs, and half-brother Emmett Jacobs, 11, dead in the family’s home nearby.
A few days after the tragedy, Zimmer said Christina went to the Mwansa home to deliver the boy’s final expression of love.
“Beautiful words they wouldn’t have known except for a promise kept by his heroic classmate, Christina,” Zimmer said, adding that he felt “honoured” to meet her.
“
And you can imagine what this 12-year-old Christina is going through after having been in a situation like she’s been.”
Mwansa Jr. has since been laid to rest in Zambia, his family’s homeland, with assistance from both the Canadian and Zambian governments, as reported by the
The MP also provided a brief update on Gebala, whom he visited in the hospital three days earlier.
“Her arm was moving, her leg was moving, her eyes were moving watching her TV show and when I spoke with her, she was very much listening to what I had to say,” he reported, asking everyone in attendance to keep her and her family in their prayers.
In
Tuesday night, her mother, Cia Edmonds, said Gebala is being treated for yet another infection but is still unable to undergo an MRI to assess her head trauma because “
she has bullet fragment in her brain.”
According to 2026 event chair and Conservative MP Richard Bragdon (Tobique—Mactaquac, N.B.), the National Prayer Breakfast, also called the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, is an annual event that’s an offshoot of a non-partisan weekly Christian prayer gathering of members and senators in a neutral location on Parliament Hill.
“The purpose of the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast is to call men and women to God, and then to entrust them with the application of what it means to live out God’s grace as leaders,”
reads.
Bragdon said this year’s event, which featured a keynote address by CFL Hall of Famer and sports executive Michael “Pinball” Clemons, yielded record attendance.
Other speakers included Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre and Prime Minister Mark Carney, neither of whom specifically mentioned Tumbler Ridge in their brief, inclusive scripture-based speeches.
More than 1,500 people attended the 60th annual National Prayer Breakfast this morning in Ottawa to pause, pray, and reflect with friends and church leaders from across the country.
It’s an important reminder that we are not alone. We have a duty to live with purpose, be… pic.twitter.com/3beHt5ERHB— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) March 25, 2026
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