Claresholm highway shooting
The Claresholm highway shooting was a murder–suicide that occurred on December 15, 2011, on Alberta Highway 2, just north of Claresholm, Alberta, Canada. The suspect, 21-year-old Derek Jensen, killed three people with a Heckler & Koch 9mm handgun, before killing himself. Jensen killed his ex-girlfriend, Tabitha Stepple, and two men she was travelling with, who were part of the Lethbridge Bulls baseball team.
Background
The suspect, 21-year-old Derek Jensen, grew up in Lethbridge. Prior to the massacre he was training to become a paramedic in Edmonton. He had met his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Tabitha Stepple in a downtown Lethbridge nightclub. The couple had moved into a basement suite together, but after mounting tensions between them, they eventually split sometime around Halloween. Despite the split the two of them still lived together. No domestic relationship violence had ever been reported and neither Stepple or Jensen was known to the police.Shooting
On the night of December 14, 2011, a group of Jensen's friends took him out to a pub in Lethbridge. Inside, Jensen came across Stepple, who was visiting with two other men, 20-year-old Mitch Maclean and 22-year-old Tanner Craswell. The two of them were rising baseball stars who had moved to Lethbridge from Prince Edward Island to play for the Lethbridge Bulls baseball team. 21-year-old Shayna Conway was also with them, and was the girlfriend of Craswell, who was out celebrating his 22nd birthday. Stepple was with them because she worked with Conway. Enraged at seeing his ex-girlfriend with other men, Jensen confronted Stepple and pushed her out of a chair. After an argument between them, Jensen and his friends left the bar and headed to a nearby club, before Jensen left, telling his friends he was heading home. Meanwhile, Maclean and Craswell had plans to leave Lethbridge after celebrating Craswell's birthday. The two of them had a 5 a.m. flight out of Calgary International Airport for Prince Edward Island, as they were returning home for Christmas. Stepple and Conway were to drive them to the airport in Stepple's Ford Escape. The four of them left Lethbridge around midnight and eventually drove north towards Calgary airport along Highway 2.Jensen was also driving north on Highway 2 in his green Pontiac Sunfire in search of Stepple. After the argument in the pub, Jensen had reportedly kept phoning Stepple and had told her "This night's not going to end well for you, I hope you know that". In Claresholm, Jensen located the group at a 7-Eleven convenience store. The four of them had stopped there briefly at around 3 a.m. on the morning of December 15. Surveillance video showed that the group were unaware Jensen was there and there was no confrontation between them. Moments after leaving the store, at around 3:30 a.m., the group was travelling north on Highway 2 when Jensen rammed the back of their SUV in his car. They were positioned just north of Claresholm and approximately 130 kilometers south of Calgary. Conway stopped the vehicle and got out to confront the driver, unaware it was Jensen. Jensen then jumped out of his vehicle, aimed a 9mm handgun at her and shot Conway three times. He then fired off several rounds into the SUV, striking and killing Stepple and Craswell as they sat in the vehicle. Maclean was also shot, but managed to escape the vehicle. Jensen then turned the gun on himself and took his own life.