Alberta shooting victim’s dad says son’s fired worker broke into his home

CONSORT, Alta. – The father of one of three people fatally shot in Alberta says the gunman broke into his son's home, and that his son shot the attacker with another weapon almost simultaneously.

Bob Lindsay says his son Shawn Lindsay, 43, let Joe Sylvester go from a job at his oilfield company in Consort, Alta., two weeks ago.

Lindsay says his son's girlfriend said the couple awoke early Friday morning to find Sylvester in their bedroom with a rifle. His son pushed Sylvester out of the house and locked the door, but Sylvester smashed the window of the door and got back inside.

He says Sylvester shot Shawn, and Shawn shot Sylvester.

Police later drove to Sylvester's trailer and found his girlfriend, Christine Clifford, had been fatally shot, according to Lindsay.

Lindsay says he alerted officers that they should check on Clifford when he noticed her car was parked outside his son's house. He tried to phone her, but there was no answer.

RCMP have only said so far that all three people were known to each other, and that they were gathering facts and trying to establish a motive.

Police have not confirmed the identities of those killed and have released few details. They've only said the public is not at risk, and that investigators are not searching for any suspects.

Consort is 220 kilometres east of Red Deer near the border with Saskatchewan.

Lindsay says his son wasn't killed immediately — he was sot in the stomach and died three hours later.

His son had two boys, aged 5 and 17 months, who were both in the home when the shooting occurred. He goes on to say Clifford, whose husband died of a heart attack two years ago, had four daughters.