The Wire - February 11, 2026

//The Wire//2300Z February 11, 2026//
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//BLUF: MASS SHOOTING REPORTED IN CANADA. MAJOR AIRSPACE CLOSURES REPORTED ALONG USA/MEX BORDER.//

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-International Events-

Canada: Yesterday afternoon a mass shooting was reported in Tumbler Ridge, a small town in British Columbia. The attack began with the assailant murdering two people inside a private residence (at least one of which was the suspect's mother). After these initial murders, the suspect maneuvered to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where he conducted the mass shooting, which ended after the suspect took his own life. Concerning casualties, a total of 9x fatalities have been reported so far, 6x fatalities at the school, 2x at the residence, and the shooter himself. Roughly 25x others were also wounded during the attack.

Analyst Comment: Regarding the motive, this shooting appears to be the standard transgender mass shooting. As the shooting was ongoing, authorities referred to the shooter as a "woman in a dress", and used the term "gunperson" to describe the suspect. After some time, the suspect was identified as Jesse van Rootselaar, who was a male transitioning to female.

-HomeFront-

Texas: Substantial airspace closures have been reported throughout the region, which have been issued and retracted. Early this morning two Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) were issued for two areas along the Mexican border. NOTAM 6/2233 was issued just before midnight yesterday evening, which grounded all aircraft at El Paso International Airport for a period of ten days; no flights, no exceptions. A similar flight restriction (TFR 6/2234) was also imposed for an area to the west of El Paso, along the Mexican border.

A few hours after the El Paso Airport NOTAM was issued, it was abruptly retracted. NOTAM 6/2234 (the area along the border adjacent to El Paso) remains in effect as before, with this airspace sector being closed for the next ten days.

This afternoon, the White House stated that this was all related to an imminent threat involving Cartel drone activity, and aircraft were grounded due to counter-UAS measures being deployed, which might have inadvertently targeted civilian aircraft.

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Analyst Comments: The airspace closure of El Paso alone is very interesting, as the type of airspace closure is extremely rare due to the location, timing, and scope of the closure. As a result, there are a few wildly differing possibilities as to what actually happened.

In short, last night the FAA dropped a no-fly-zone akin to what was issued on 9/11 directly over the El Paso airport. The wording of the NOTAMs (or rather, the lack thereof) is also highly interesting as no concessions were made for any sort of exception, at all. This was a hard-line "we will shoot you down if you take off" kind of no-fly-zone. No medical aircraft, no police helicopters, absolutely nothing allowed to be in the air, not even military aircraft were granted an exemption.

As to what the truth actually is, it's anyone's guess and probably a blend of all of the theories expressed so far. It's certainly possible that the official story is true, and that Cartel drones breached US airspace, an various emergency measures were employed to "discombobulate" the drones. It's also possible that this was an overreaction brought on by personality clashes in El Paso, and not an actual threat. Most seriously, it's equally possible that the threat was not the standard Cartel recon drones, but something vastly more dangerous, which presented a direct threat to civilian aircraft.

Cartel drones have been operating in the border region for many years, both for the purposes of smuggling drugs across the border, but also for conducting reconnaissance of US Border Patrol positions (though these recon flights don't normally take place at night). These flight