HIGH RIVER, Alta. – Derek Jensen was an angry young man, armed with several guns and on the hunt for his ex-girlfriend on a dark Alberta highway.
RCMP released new details Saturday in the shocking murder-suicide that left saw Jensen kill three people, leaving a sole surviving witness.
Investigators have determined Jensen was searching for Tabitha Stepple early Thursday along Highway 2, south of Calgary, when he spotted her car stopped at a 7-Eleven store in Claresholm. Stepple and three friends in the car were making a quick pit-stop on their way from Lethbridge to the Calgary airport.
When they got back on the road, Jensen continued to follow the car for another 1.5 kilometres, then quickly rammed it from behind and opened fire on everyone inside. He next turned the 9-mm handgun on himself.
Mounties found two more loaded guns in his vehicle – a shotgun and a rifle. They later discovered another rifle and some ammunition at his home in Lethbridge.
“We can surmise there was definitely a certain amount of planning in this,” Sgt. Patrick Webb told a news conference in nearby High River.
“No one drives around for the most part with three loaded weapons. Exactly how they were to be utilized or what his intentions were, we may never know.”
Friends have said Jensen was an avid hunter, and Webb confirmed all his guns were legally registered.
Webb said it appears Jensen’s murderous rampage was fuelled by a recent break-up with Stepple. The couple, both 21, had been living together in Lethbridge and recently separated.
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“Jensen was not satisfied with that,” said Webb.
But he said there was no known domestic abuse between the pair and no foreshadowing of the violence to come. “This came out of the blue,” Webb said.
“We can’t speak to any way this could have been prevented. We have no indication from anyone so far that they could have imagined this happening.”
Webb also said the lone survivor of the shooting, 21-year-old Shayna Conway, was well enough to talk to officers at the scene.
She has since had surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.
Webb said Conway was driving Stepple’s car that night. The women were taking Conway’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Tanner Craswell, and his friend Mitch MacLean, 20, to the airport so the men could fly home for Christmas.
Conway, Craswell and MacLean all hail from Prince Edward Island. They were studying at Lethbridge College.
Friends say the group had hours earlier celebrated Craswell’s birthday at a pub in Lethbridge, where they ran into Jensen. There was an explosive argument.
Webb couldn’t confirm the confrontation at the bar.
He said after Jensen rear-ended the car on the highway, Conway got out first, possibly unaware of who was driving the offending vehicle.
Jensen shot her several times, then walked to the car and fired many more shots inside, killing Stepple and Craswell.
Webb said MacLean was wounded but managed to climb out of the car and crawl a short distance into a ditch.
Webb said MacLean and Conway were both taken to a Calgary hospital, but MacLean died before he arrived.
Webb said he hopes providing some details about the event will give the victims’ families solace. He added that officers and emergency officials who attended the grisly scene have also been affected.
“This is just simply a bad situation that everyone on their own terms will have to work through.”
Flowers, teddy bears, a weathered baseball glove and a tin of chewing tobacco have been placed on the side of the highway where the four died. One woman sat there crying Saturday afternoon.
MacLean and Craswell were promising baseball stars with the Bulls of the Western Major Baseball League. MacLean was named rookie of the year, and Craswell was an all-star shortshop.
The team is setting up a memorial fund and plans to hold a vigil in the new year.
Their former high school in Charlottetown is also planning to hold a “game of catch” Monday in their honour.
Kevin Whitrow, principal of Colonel Gray High School, said the game is an appropriate way to remember the young men who loved to play ball.
“I’ll never forget Mitch’s walk off sac fly in last year’s extra-inning semi-final,” wrote one friend on a memorial Facebook page set up for the victims. “Love and miss you brother.”
“Absolutely unbelievable and tragic,” wrote Shelly Lumley. “Our hearts go out to all their family and friends.”
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