Cops: Evan Spencer Ebel officially a suspect in Tom Clements killing
The scene of a car crash in Decatur, Texas. Police officials in Colorado are investigating the shootout and subsequent chase in relation to the death of prisons chief Tom Clements. Sources have identified the driver as Evan Ebel. / Jimmy Alford / Wise County Messenger
Updated at March 24, 2013, 12:40 a.m. ET
DENVER Colorado investigators on Saturday said for the first time that a former prison inmate who was killed in a gunfight with Texas authorities is a suspect in the death of Colorado's state prison system chief.
The evidence gathered in Texas after the death of Evan Spencer Ebel provided a "strong, strong lead" in the fatal shooting of Colorado Department of Corrections director Tom Clements, who was killed at his front door, El Paso County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer said Saturday.
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Kramer also confirmed Ebel had been a member of the 211s, a white supremacist prison gang in Colorado. It was not known if Ebel knew who Clements was and that he was the state's top prison official, Kramer said.
CBS News correspondent Anna Werner reports from Decatur, Texas, that police from both Texas and Colorado descended on the town northwest of Fort Worth to try to answer key questions: What was the reason for the shooting rampage there, and is it connected to the Colorado murder?
A darkly ironic connection emerged among Ebel, Clements and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper when the governor confirmed Friday he was a longtime friend of Ebel's father, attorney Jack Ebel.
Jack Ebel had testified before Colorado lawmakers two years ago that solitary confinement in a Colorado prison was destroying his son's psyche.
When Hickenlooper interviewed Clements for the top prison job in Colorado, he mentioned the case as an example of why the prison system needed reform, but Hickenlooper said he did not mention Ebel by name. Later, Clements eased the use of solitary confinement in Colorado and tried to make it easier for people held there to re-enter society.
Hickenlooper's spokesman said Clements did not know specifically who Ebel was.
Clements was shot Tuesday night when he answered the door of his home in a wooded, rural area north of Colorado Springs.
More twists in prison chief killing
Kramer said investigators were trying to determine whether the 211 gang was involved in Clements' death.
The Colorado Department of Corrections was also investigating Clements' death, but spokeswoman Alison Morgan declined to say whether the 211 gang was a focus of the inquiry.
Denver police say Ebel is also a suspect in the March 17 slaying of pizza delivery man Nathan Leon. Texas authorities found a Domino's pizza delivery box and a jacket or shirt from the pizza chain in the trunk of the car Ebel was driving.
Authorities previously said that car was similar to one seen not far from Clements' home the night he was killed, and bullets Ebel fired at Texas police were the same caliber and brand as the bullet or bullets that killed Clements. But until Saturday they had stopped short of saying Ebel was a suspect.
Kramer stressed that investigators have not yet confirmed a link between Ebel and Clements' death. Tests were under way to determine if the weapon used to kill Clements was the same one recovered from Ebel in Texas.
Results could be available Monday, Kramer said.
The suspect's father, Jack Ebel, said in a statement Saturday that he was "profoundly saddened by the recent events involving my son" and asked for privacy as the family grieved, according to The Denver Post.
Ebel, who was paroled from a Colorado prison in January, was fatally shot Thursday by authorities in Texas after a pursuit reaching 100 mph.
The Tarrant County medical examiner's office in Texas said Ebel died from a gunshot wound in his forehead.
There was no indication that Hickenlooper's relationship with the Ebels played a role in the shooting. Hickenlooper said he did not having any role in Evan Ebel's parole.
Evan Ebel was paroled Jan. 28 as part of a mandatory process after serving his full prison term, Morgan said. He had most recently been sentenced to four years for punching a prison guard in 2008, according to state records.
The entire state prison system has remained under lockdown. Morgan said the lockdown would not be lifted until after a public memorial service for Clements on Sunday.
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Yet another opportunity for gun rights folks to say that stricter gun controls would have made no difference, that really the victims should have been better armed, that a criminal like this would have found another weapon if not a gun, that this is an extremely rare "exception" compared to all the 300 million legally-owned guns that are serving no harm, that we should focus on the punishing monsters like this instead of interfering with the God-given rights of law-abiding gun owners.
And this is now the 76th time (I'm actually counting) I've written a post like this in various discussion boards in response to a tragic series of events like this one.
Sure, gun rights advocates, you're probably right! Probably the wide availability of guns in the USA has NOTHING AT ALL to do with all the gun-related violence we see. Probably I've been completely wrong 76 times over!! Probably reducing access to guns would do NOTHING to reduce gun violence.
Yet we keep trying your approach and NOTHING changes!! More violence, more shootings, continued liberal access to guns. Maybe just maybe, one of these times, we'll try things a different way, just to see if another approach will be more effective than continuing to flood the market with guns.
Of course, I don't expect you to grow a brain just yet, so I'll get myself ready to write my 77th response when the next tragedy strikes.
Like I say, I've been writing posts like this one a long time and to be honest I'm kind of getting into the swing of it. Another shooting, another tragedy, another post about guns. It's quite a pleasant routine, and I've actually become really efficient writing about these tragedies, so I completely don't mind writing about another one. And the victims' families are obviously firmly on your side too. They are honest God-fearing folk like yourself, and they totally don't mind losing their loved ones to support your Second Amendment rights.
So, YES, by all means, let's give it a try your way AGAIN!! If we produce just enough guns and get them all into the hands of the Good Guys, then there will be sufficient protection in place that we won't have another tragedy by a Bad Guy like this. We're just 3 or 4 million guns short right now... so come on people, get out there and buy your guns and stock 'em up with lots of ammo!!
As I say, I've written about this issue 76 times after similar tragedies, and I'll admit at times I've suggested we reduce the number of guns out there (just as kind of a back-door, off the wall, crazy-ass kind of idea on reducing gun violence), but pay that no mind. I'm totally ready to try it your way again, so let's get 'em law-abiding folks stocking up on more guns to "protect" our kids. And then in the unlikely event that I find myself writing a message like this for a 77th time after another future tragedy, perhaps then you'll let me know if we could try a different approach.
Until then, bring on the guns!! I've got a really good feeling this time... maybe 76 times lucky. God Bless America.
Obviously. But there are fewer murders in countries that regulate guns more rigorously. See that word? FEWER!
However, I know that gun rights folks get mad any time people try to use statistics. You know, numbers that talk about murder rates being significantly lower in Canada, Australia, the EU and Japan -- other developed countries, and places where there are far fewer guns in circulation.
Gun rights advocates will always use this petty argument of saying that bad things happen in those places too, and that if it's not a gun, it's a knife or a bomb. They'll say you can't compare the United States to Canada. (Why the hell not?) And they hate it when we keep coming back to the numbers of murders. FEWER PEOPLE DIE OF MURDERS IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES THAT HAVE STRICTER GUN LAWS. That's a very uncomfortable fact for gun rights folks, and no matter how much vitriol people give in response to this post, nobody will be able to cite statistics that refute that statement, as they know it's true.
Again, to be crystal clear so nobody misquotes me here as they have a thousand times before... I'm not saying NOBODY dies of homicides in the EU, Canada or Japan, but that FEWER people die of homicide. It is a question of degree... a little subtlety of argumentation and logic that is lost on gun rights advocates.
I just wish you gun rights advocates would come right out and be TOTALLY honest about your position by saying: "It doesn't bother us that more innocent people get murdered, as long as we personally don't lose our God-given Second Amendment rights. My right to own a gun is more important than the lives of those children in Newtown."
As shocking as that statement would be, at least that would be a truthful expression of the selfishness of your position.
...and murderer extrordinaire.
Got him in Texas, too bad he has to go back to Colorado in chains because Texas will execute the vermin if he was/is charged and found guilty there.
Colorado will likely give him life w/o possibility of parole. In essence, they'll place him back in the company of his white power brothers that will elevate him to the top of their organization. A Crime College graduate that will be sent up to learn more about how to get away with murder in post-graduate Crime College.
Colorado and tax dollars will have to be spent keeping this monster fed, clothed, showered along with guarenteeing all his rights that other convicts have there.
They won't execute him, they don't have the stomach for it.
Different story in Texas, they don't put up with it.
There's nobody to extradite or charge. The guy was killed.
Time to come clean CBS and follow journalistic standards.. or does the Poynter Institute call your shots??????
*******...