It was a day of heartbreak in Winsloe, Prince Edward Island Thursday, as friends and family gathered to pay their final respects to Mitch MacLean, one of two baseball players murdered on an Alberta highway last week.
Mitch's mother, Dianne MacLean, addressed the approximately 600 people crowded in the small United Church on the outskirts of Charlottetown, reading a poem she'd written for her 20-year-old son.
The poem titled "Last Time at the Plate" described a face off with a pitcher that ends with Mitch hitting a resounding home run.
"The game is over now. You must pack up your gear. We know you'll keep playing. It's just not going to be here," MacLean said, gently supported by Mitch's father Irwin.
In the funeral program handed out at the service, Mitch's family thanked the community for the love and support shown.
"Words cannot adequately express the debt of thanks we owe to so many who have surrounded us with love and supported and comforted us in countless ways this week," said the statement.
"Your stories, your laughter, your tears, your offers to help ... have warmed our hearts and lifted our spirits."
A promising baseball player, MacLean was one of four young people shot by Derek Jensen, before Jensen turned the gun on himself.
CTV's Ashley Dunbar, reporting from outside the funeral service, said MacLean's casket was carried by men wearing ball caps and it was clear "it was a sport he loved and it was a huge part of who he was."
His loss, she said, was clearly deeply felt.
"Even just being there outside you could feel the love. There was silence as people gathered in and you could tell he was a very loved individual," Dunbar said.
A former teacher of both MacLean and Craswell, said that the service was a touching tribute to the baseball player.
"It was a wonderful tribute. But it's just such a senseless, horrible thing to try and comprehend and people are having a difficult time," Mary-Beth Bradley said. "But the minister did a beautiful job and it was a very touching service."
MacLean was gunned down last week along with Tanner Craswell, also from P.E.I., and their friend Tabitha Stepple when Stepple's ex-boyfriend ran them off the road, then opened fire.
RCMP say Derek Jensen, 21, killed all three and shot a fourth friend, Shayna Conway, several times, though she survived and remains in hospital.
Jensen killed himself after the shooting spree, according to police reports.
MacLean, 20, and Craswell, 22, had both moved to Alberta to play baseball for Lethbridge College. Craswell will be laid to rest on Friday in Charlottetown.
Both men were honoured by their former high school on Monday, when students and staff played a simple game of catch in their memory.
Stepple and Conway were driving the young men to the airport on Dec. 15 to fly home for Christmas when the violence occurred.
Earlier in the night they bumped into Jensen at a pub while celebrating Craswell's birthday, and he reportedly became angry and pushed Stepple. The couple had broken up several months ago but were still living together, though Jensen was supposed to have moved out the day of the shooting.
Later in the evening they again ran into Jensen at a convenience store in Claresholm, Alta., and shortly after that he slammed his car into theirs on a highway outside Lethbridge.
According to an account from Conway, she got out of the damaged car after it came to a stop, and was shot several times with a handgun.
Then Jensen approached the car and several shots were fired. Stepple, 21, and Craswell were both killed. MacLean was shot, but managed to escape from the car and crawl into a ditch, though he later died en route to hospital.
Jensen was carrying three loaded weapons at the time -- a handgun, shotgun and rifle.
Police called the slayings were the result of a "domestic violence, jilted-boyfriend motive."
"We can surmise there was definitely a certain amount of planning in this," RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb told a news conference. "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."
