The victim, Devin Moorhouse, white male, age 35, of Anchorage, Alaska, was shot and killed on October 12, 2020. What began as an argument after a minor collision in a gravel pit near Willow—where Moorhouse and a juvenile passenger had been doing doughnuts—spilled onto the road. As Moorhouse tried to leave, the other driver, Palmer resident Gavin Sullivan Christiansen, fired repeatedly at the fleeing vehicle and then pursued it for miles along Willow-Fishhook Road.
The chase ended when Moorhouse lost control and went into a ditch; Christiansen pulled alongside, announced to a 911 dispatcher that he was “about to shoot somebody,” and fired several more rounds through Moorhouse's closed driver-side window at close range. The juvenile passenger was not physically harmed.
Alaska State Troopers arrested Christiansen the same day, and prosecutors charged him with murder after concluding that Moorhouse's gun found at the scene was unloaded and that Christiansen had already fired roughly fifteen shots before the final confrontation. Early reports noted Christiansen had recently been a Libertarian candidate for the state Senate and remained on the ballot despite having withdrawn from the race weeks earlier.
After a weeklong trial in Palmer, a jury on March 13, 2023, convicted Christiansen of second-degree murder, along with related counts including manslaughter and weapons misconduct. The prosecutor rebutted claims of self-defense by stressing that Alaska law is “stand your ground, not chase them down,” and the jury agreed Christiansen became the aggressor when he pursued the victim.
In January 2024, a judge sentenced Christiansen to 25 years to serve—described in some reports as a 30-year term with five years suspended—along with felony probation following release. The sentencing closed a case that began with a gravel-pit quarrel and ended as a fatal road-rage shooting that took the life of a 35-year-old Anchorage man.
