Shooting called a warning to motorists

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 | 11:20 a.m.

The killing of a 54-year-old man after what Henderson police are calling a road rage encounter with two teens should be viewed as a cautionary tale, said Erin Breen, director of UNLV's Safe Community Partnership.

"It's time for people to stand back and evaluate their behavior," Breen said. "People are so different when they get behind the wheel of their car. You never know who's going to have a gun."

Jeffrey Jefferson, 17, and Christopher Giblin, 18, are being held without bail in Clark County Detention Center on charges of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the shooting death of William Shepherd.

Henderson Police received a 911 call about 4:40 a.m. April 21 from someone who heard male voices shouting, then heard a gunshot. Officers found Shepherd in the middle of Patrick Lane dead from a shotgun wound.

Shepherd's wife, Valeria, told police he regularly got into fights with other motorists over their driving, the police report says.

Aggressive driving is becoming more frequent, in part because there are more drivers on the road, Breen said, but statistics are hard to come by because it's not classified in crash data.

Although Breen said it's hard to speculate as to who is at fault in Shepherd's case, she hopes people who drive aggressively or engage in road rage will modify their behavior after hearing about it.

"If your significant other has this type of problem, use this as a teaching tool," she said.

Initially police had no leads in Shepherd's death. But on May 5 police learned that Jefferson had told an ex-girlfriend that he and his friend Giblin, nicknamed "Gizmo," had been involved in a traffic altercation with an "old man," authorities said. The girl told police that Jefferson shot and killed the man because he tried to run the teenagers off the road and threatened to shoot them, according to the arrest affidavit.

After police pulled Jefferson over on May 8, he talked to detectives about the shooting.

Jefferson said Giblin was alone in the car when he shot and killed Shepherd, then Giblin called him from a convenience store and asked him to pick him up. Jefferson then gave conflicting stories of his involvement and police placed him under arrest after the interview.

Jefferson later admitted to being in the car with Giblin, and said Giblin shot Shepherd, affidavit said.

Detectives interviewed Giblin, who was being held in the county jail on unrelated charges. He blamed Jefferson, saying he stopped the vehicle, got out and shot Shepherd in the face with his sawed-off shotgun, the police report says.

Determining who actually fired the shotgun is part of the ongoing investigation, police department spokesman Keith Paul said.

A preliminary hearing for Jefferson and Giblin is scheduled for May 19.