White supremacist killed, white supremacist ex-convict who died in a roadside gun battle with Texas police was being investigated for possible links to the deaths of a Colorado prisons chief and a pizza delivery man, law enforcement officials said on Friday.
Police said that Evan Spencer Ebel, a 28-year-old parolee from Denver killed by police on Thursday after a high-speed car chase through Decatur, Texas, was being investigated in connection with the death of Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Clements, 58, was shot dead on Tuesday when he answered the door at his home near the community of Monument, in El Paso County about 45 miles south of Denver.
Denver police have named Ebel as a suspect in the killing of pizza delivery man Nathan Leon in Denver two days earlier.
Ebel was a member of a white supremacist prison gang, the 211 Crew, and had been paroled in the Denver area, a law enforcement official said.
The Hornady 9-mm bullets Ebel fired at Texas police were the same brand as those used in the killing of Clements, Denver television station KCNC-TV reported on Friday, citing a search warrant affidavit filed in Texas for police to search Ebel's Cadillac.
In the car's trunk, there was a pizza deliverer's shirt or jacket, the station reported, citing court documents.
The El Paso County (Colorado) Sheriff's Office said in a statement late on Friday that bullet casings collected at the scene in Texas would be sent to the state crime lab to determine if the same weapon was used to kill Clements.
Authorities were also looking for ties between the death of Clements and the January killing of Mark Hasse, a prosecutor in the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office. Kaufman County is east of Dallas.
The January 31 killing of Hasse occurred the same day the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office was among the agencies involved in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group.
"The Dallas and Denver offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are comparing the homicides of Mark Hasse and Tom Clements to determine if there is any evidence linking the two crimes," Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said in a statement.
LENGTHY CRIMINAL HISTORY
In Texas, Ebel shot and wounded a Montague County sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop and fled. He led police on a car chase that ended when his car, with Colorado plates, collided with an 18-wheeler truck.
Ebel died at a Fort Worth hospital of a single gunshot wound to the forehead, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said.
"I do know that he has a lengthy criminal history," said Sheriff David Walker of Wise County in Texas, whose deputies were involved in the car chase.
Investigators looking into the death of Clements went to Decatur, Texas, to examine Ebel's Cadillac, said Jeff Kramer, spokesman for the El Paso County sheriff in Colorado.
According to Colorado court records, Ebel was arrested at least seven times between 2003 and 2010 for crimes including burglary, weapons possession, assault, menacing and robbery.
"He clearly was a troubled young man, but there was nothing that would have suggested he was capable of these types of incidents," Denver-based attorney Scott Robinson, who represented Ebel in four cases in 2004, told Reuters.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper confirmed news reports that he was a friend of the parolee's father, Jack Ebel, who he said he met while working for an oil company soon after moving to the state about 30 years ago.
"Although Jack loved his son, he never asked me to intervene on his behalf and I never asked for any special treatment for his son," Hickenlooper said in a statement released on Friday.
Hickenlooper said that Evan Ebel had served every day of his original sentence and was released on "mandatory parole at the end of the time he was ordered to be incarcerated."
Mark Potok, senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said the 211 Crew, also known as the Aryan Alliance, was founded in 1995 by Colorado prison inmate Benjamin Davis.
Davis is serving a 108-year sentence after his conviction for racketeering, conspiracy and other charges under the state's Organized Crime Control Act.
"The group started out as a protective group, but quickly morphed into a criminal enterprise," Potok said, adding that the 211s are known for the "harshness" of their discipline, he said.
He said the 211s were a "blood in, blood out" gang, meaning a prospective member must commit a violent act at the direction of one of the gang's higher-ups, or "shot callers."
Once paroled 211 members are on the street they are expected to start earning money, usually through criminal activity, and forward the proceeds to incarcerated gang leaders, Potok said.
Police said that Evan Spencer Ebel, a 28-year-old parolee from Denver killed by police on Thursday after a high-speed car chase through Decatur, Texas, was being investigated in connection with the death of Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Clements, 58, was shot dead on Tuesday when he answered the door at his home near the community of Monument, in El Paso County about 45 miles south of Denver.
Denver police have named Ebel as a suspect in the killing of pizza delivery man Nathan Leon in Denver two days earlier.
Ebel was a member of a white supremacist prison gang, the 211 Crew, and had been paroled in the Denver area, a law enforcement official said.
The Hornady 9-mm bullets Ebel fired at Texas police were the same brand as those used in the killing of Clements, Denver television station KCNC-TV reported on Friday, citing a search warrant affidavit filed in Texas for police to search Ebel's Cadillac.
In the car's trunk, there was a pizza deliverer's shirt or jacket, the station reported, citing court documents.
The El Paso County (Colorado) Sheriff's Office said in a statement late on Friday that bullet casings collected at the scene in Texas would be sent to the state crime lab to determine if the same weapon was used to kill Clements.
Authorities were also looking for ties between the death of Clements and the January killing of Mark Hasse, a prosecutor in the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office. Kaufman County is east of Dallas.
The January 31 killing of Hasse occurred the same day the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office was among the agencies involved in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group.
"The Dallas and Denver offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are comparing the homicides of Mark Hasse and Tom Clements to determine if there is any evidence linking the two crimes," Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said in a statement.
LENGTHY CRIMINAL HISTORY
In Texas, Ebel shot and wounded a Montague County sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop and fled. He led police on a car chase that ended when his car, with Colorado plates, collided with an 18-wheeler truck.
Ebel died at a Fort Worth hospital of a single gunshot wound to the forehead, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said.
"I do know that he has a lengthy criminal history," said Sheriff David Walker of Wise County in Texas, whose deputies were involved in the car chase.
Investigators looking into the death of Clements went to Decatur, Texas, to examine Ebel's Cadillac, said Jeff Kramer, spokesman for the El Paso County sheriff in Colorado.
According to Colorado court records, Ebel was arrested at least seven times between 2003 and 2010 for crimes including burglary, weapons possession, assault, menacing and robbery.
"He clearly was a troubled young man, but there was nothing that would have suggested he was capable of these types of incidents," Denver-based attorney Scott Robinson, who represented Ebel in four cases in 2004, told Reuters.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper confirmed news reports that he was a friend of the parolee's father, Jack Ebel, who he said he met while working for an oil company soon after moving to the state about 30 years ago.
"Although Jack loved his son, he never asked me to intervene on his behalf and I never asked for any special treatment for his son," Hickenlooper said in a statement released on Friday.
Hickenlooper said that Evan Ebel had served every day of his original sentence and was released on "mandatory parole at the end of the time he was ordered to be incarcerated."
Mark Potok, senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said the 211 Crew, also known as the Aryan Alliance, was founded in 1995 by Colorado prison inmate Benjamin Davis.
Davis is serving a 108-year sentence after his conviction for racketeering, conspiracy and other charges under the state's Organized Crime Control Act.
"The group started out as a protective group, but quickly morphed into a criminal enterprise," Potok said, adding that the 211s are known for the "harshness" of their discipline, he said.
He said the 211s were a "blood in, blood out" gang, meaning a prospective member must commit a violent act at the direction of one of the gang's higher-ups, or "shot callers."
Once paroled 211 members are on the street they are expected to start earning money, usually through criminal activity, and forward the proceeds to incarcerated gang leaders, Potok said.