On a tragic Thursday morning in Bolivar, Tennessee, the life of Camille Lashawn Thompson, a 26-year-old mother of four, was violently cut short. On September 15, 2016, while driving her two oldest children to school, she was ambushed by her estranged husband, 24-year-old Johntate Thompson. He used his vehicle to block her car at the intersection of Vale Road and Pleasant Creek Lane.
As she attempted to maneuver around his car, he opened fire, shooting her multiple times in front of her children, who were aged 6 and 7.
Camille's mother, Barbara Fitzhugh, was following her daughter in a separate vehicle and witnessed the horrific event. After initially shooting Camille, Johntate Thompson exited his vehicle, walked over to his estranged wife's car, and shot her several more times before fleeing the scene. A police report later stated she had been shot a total of 10 times. In a desperate attempt to stop him, Fitzhugh tried to run him over with her car, but he threatened her with his gun before speeding away.
The incident sparked a high-speed police chase down Highway 18, which was eventually called off due to the dangerous speeds. Authorities were later able to track Johntate's location after he made a 911 call. They found his vehicle stopped on Sand Road, his path blocked by a log in the road. As law enforcement officers closed in, Johntate Thompson died by suicide, sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
The investigation revealed that the couple was separated, and Johntate had gone to Camille's mother's house earlier that morning demanding to speak with her. He was turned away by both Camille and her mother. Concerned for her daughter's safety, Barbara Fitzhugh decided to follow her as she drove her children to school. The firearms Johntate Thompson used in the murder-suicide were reportedly stolen from a family member. In the days leading up to the fatal shooting, he had posted pictures of guns and videos of himself at a gun range on his Facebook page. Camille Thompson was born on December 31, 1989.
