UPDATE: Ebel’s family releases statement

By Daniel Chac March 22, 2013 | updated 13 years ago

Wise County Sheriff David Walker answers questions during a news conference to discuss the suspect who was killed in Decatur, TexasThursday, after injuring a Montague County Sheriff's Deputy, Friday, March 22, 2013. Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist died after a high-speed chase and shootout with Texas deputies. Now investigators are trying to piece together whether he killed the chief of Colorado prisons, Tom Clements, and a pizza delivery man, where he was headed when Texas police stopped him. (AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Rodger Mallison) Photo by

UPDATE: Investigators are saying for the first time that a man who was killed in a gunfight with Texas authorities is a suspect in the investigation into killing of Tom Clements, said El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer.

Kramer said Saturday that evidence gathered in Texas after the death of Evan Spencer Ebel provides a “strong, strong lead” in the slaying of Clements, director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Kramer stressed that investigators have not yet confirmed a link between Ebel and Clements’ death. Investigators await ballistics tests of shell casings found in Texas, which should be final by early next week.

Ebel’s father Jack Ebel, a long-time friend of Gov. John Hickenlooper, released a statement on Saturday expressing his condolences, The Denver Post reported:

I am profoundly saddened by the recent events involving my son, Evan Ebel, and offer my most sincere condolences to all of those individuals and families who have suffered from his actions. I ask for privacy for me and my family during this time as we grieve for the loss of life that has occurred and for all of those affected.

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Shell casings recovered from the scene of a Texas shootout with a parolee are the same brand and caliber as those used in the slaying of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements, according to court documents.

The shell casings are Hornady 9mm, according to a warrant to search the black 1991 Cadillac Deville that Evan Ebel was driving in Texas before he got into a gunfight Thursday with authorities.

Ebel, 28, an alleged member of a white supremacist prison gang on parole since Jan. 28, was shot and died early Friday at a Texas hospital.

Clements was killed about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when he answered the front door of his Monument-area home.

The warrant, filed Thursday evening by Texas Ranger Anthony Bradford, also ties Ebel to the Denver-area shooting death of Nathan Leon, a part-time pizza delivery driver whose body was found Sunday in Golden.

A Domino’s Pizza carrier was found in the trunk of the Cadillac “and either a Domino’s Pizza shirt or jacket” was near the pizza carrier, the warrant states.

The suspect in Leon’s killing was “reportedly driving a black 1991 passenger vehicle,” the warrant states.

Denver police said Friday they are “confident the man shot after a shootout in Texas is the person suspected of killing a pizza deliveryman.”

El Paso County sheriff’s investigators who traveled to Texas to investigate the possible link to the Clements’ case returned to Colorado Springs on Friday but said little about their findings. They brought back evidence, including shell casings for ballistics testing.

“I want to make it very clear — very clear — this is still an active and open investigation,” El Paso County sheriff’s investigator John San Agustin said at a news conference in Texas. “Over the last 60 hours our deputies have been working around the clock, following up on leads in the murder of Executive Director Clements.”

He said the investigation was ongoing in Colorado as well as in Texas.

Colorado officials wouldn’t confirm Ebel’s membership in a white supremacist prison gang, but placed state prisons on lockdown Friday afternoon.

“There’s been an inordinate amount of media attention on one threat group, and that has required additional security measures,” state prisons spokeswoman Alison Morgan said.

The corrections department also was preparing for a Monday memorial service for Clements, she said. The public memorial will be at 10 a.m. at New Life Church, 11025 Voyager Parkway.

Steve Johnson, assistant director of Colorado Bureau of Investigation, said during the Texas news conference that officials were not aware of any threats made before Clements’ killing. He also said additional security was in place for the state’s top officials because of the shooting.

Investigators spent Friday morning searching the wrecked Cadillac for “physical, biological and trace evidence” that might link Ebel to the Colorado killings. The Texas investigation was headed by the Texas Rangers, and also involved multiple local sheriff’s offices. Along with El Paso County sheriff’s investigators, representatives from the Colorado Bureau of Investigations, the Denver and Golden police departments, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the two-state investigation.

“As the investigation continues, we want to make very clear that everyone realizes that this is an ongoing investigation. There will be a lot of information that we gather that we, at the present time, do not want to release from Texas or Colorado,” David Walker, the sheriff in Wise County, Texas, said during a news briefing Friday morning. The police chase ended in Wise County with the shootout.

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Gazette reporter Matt Steiner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click here for Thursday’s report on the chase and capture of Ebel.

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Daniel Chac

Reporter

Colorado Springs Gazette

UPDATE: Ebel’s family releases statement

Daniel Chac

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