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Man Who Led Texas Police on 100 mph Car Chase Could Be Linked to Slaying of Colo. Prison Chief

Mar. 21, 2013 9:55pm Jason Howerton

DECATUR, Texas (AP) — A man who led Texas authorities on a 100 mph car chase that ended in a shootout Thursday and may be linked to the slaying of Colorado’s state prison chief is a paroled prison inmate, officials said.

The Denver Post reported that the man is 28-year-old Evan Spencer Ebel. A federal law enforcement official confirmed that identity to The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Man Who Led Texas Police on 100 mph Car Chase Could Be Linked to Slaying of Colo. Prison Chief

This undated photo released by the Colorado Department of Corrections shows paroled inmate Evan Spencer Ebel. Ebel, 28, is the man who led Texas authorities on a 100 mph car chase that ended in a shootout Thursday, March 21, 2013, and may be linked to the slaying of Colorado’s state prison chief. Credit: AP

Legal records show Ebel was convicted of several crimes in Colorado dating back to 2003, including assaulting a prison guard in 2008. He apparently was paroled, but Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan said she could not release information on prisoners because of the ongoing investigation into Tom Clements’ death.

Ebel was driving a Cadillac in Texas that matched the description of the vehicle seen leaving the home of prisons chief Clements around the time he was shot Tuesday night.

Authorities in Texas said Ebel fired on them when they tried to stop his car. He was eventually shot by authorities who say he is essentially dead but is hooked up to equipment for organ harvesting.

Investigators were flying to Texas to see if Ebel was linked to Clements’ slaying and the killing Sunday of Nathan Leon, a Denver pizza delivery man. Denver police said there was a “strong connection” between that killing and the Texas situation but did not elaborate, other than to confirm their detectives were en route.

In Colorado, where Clements’ killing shocked the state, officials were hopeful.

“We don’t know yet exactly whether this is the guy,” Gov. John Hickenlooper told reporters Thursday afternoon. “There’s some indication. I hope it is.”

Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez said detectives from Denver and Golden were working with El Paso County, Colo., sheriff’s officials, who are investigating Clements’ death, and she couldn’t comment on evidence from the car that crashed in Texas.

Montague County sheriff’s deputy James Boyd tried to pull over the Cadillac at about 11 a.m. Thursday, though officials wouldn’t elaborate on the reason.

The driver opened fire on Boyd, wounding him, Wise County Sheriff David Walker said at an afternoon news conference in Decatur. He then fled south before crashing into a semi as he tried to elude his pursuers.

Walker said Colorado investigators were heading to Texas to determine whether the man is connected to Clements’ killing. Boyd was wearing a bulletproof vest and is at a Fort Worth hospital, authorities said. Officials had said he wasn’t seriously injured but later said his condition was unknown.

Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins said the man appeared to be a white man in his 30s. The man shot at Hoskins four times as the chief tried to set up a road block to halt him. The man left his car after it crashed and opened fire on the authorities around him, Hoskins said.

“He wasn’t planning on being taken alive,” Hoskins said. In a brief interview, he added that the man had no identification on him.

El Paso County sheriff’s investigators have been looking for a dark, late-model car, possibly a Lincoln or a Cadillac, that a neighbor spotted near Clements’ home around the time of the shooting. Lt. Jeff Kramer refused to say what other clues may have been found after officers canvassed Clements’ neighborhood.

Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins, left, answers questions with Wise County Sheriff David Walker on Thursday, March 21, 2013, at the Wise County Sheriff s Office in Decatur, Texas. They say authorities are still trying to determine if a man who was shot by officers in Wise County after a car chase is linked to the slaying of Colorado s state prison chief. Credit: AP

Clements, 58, was killed as he answered the door to his home Tuesday night in Monument, a town of rolling hills and alpine trees north of Colorado Springs. His death stunned law enforcement colleagues in Colorado and Missouri, where he spent most of his career as a highly respected corrections official.

Police haven’t said if they think his death was linked to his job.

Denver’s KMGH-TV reported Thursday that Clements may have put a bicycle up for sale for $1,200 on Craigslist. Kramer told the station, “I can’t speak to the efforts behind this tip, or the level we are giving it.”

In recent weeks, Clements had requested chemicals to plan for the execution of a convict on Colorado’s death row and denied a Saudi national’s request to serve out the remainder of a sentence in his home country. Officials refused to say whether they were looking at those actions as possible motives.

Clements came to Colorado in 2011 after working three decades in the Missouri prison system. Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Mandi Steele said Thursday the department was ready to help in the probe if asked.

“Tom regularly commented that corrections is inherently a dangerous business, and that’s all that I’ll say,” said Alison Morgan, a Colorado corrections spokeswoman who worked closely with Clements.

Officials in positions like Clements’ get a deluge of threats, according to people who monitor their safety. But it can be hard sorting out which ones could lead to violence. A U.S. Department of Justice study found that federal prosecutors and judges received 5,250 threats between 2003 and 2008, but there were only three attacks during that time period.

The last public official killed in Colorado in the past 10 years was Sean May, a prosecutor in suburban Denver. An assailant killed May as he arrived home from work. Investigators examined May’s court cases, but the case remains unsolved.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (33)

dmerwin
Posted on March 23, 2013 at 3:32am
If the recipient knows where their organ is coming from, would they want this one or take a pass?

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ThomasPaineFan
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 2:45pm
All I have to say is “Good Shooting Tex”

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Rayblue
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:50am
They’ll kill the killers down here.
Colorado just investigates it seems.

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- stablepar
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:29pm
  i love justice but in thicase i wonder if we could have gotten anything good out of him about who may have hired him. just saying
  
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Sargeking
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:01am
I may just be spiff balling here but Ebel fits the profile of a Muslim terrorist, especially in a physical sense. That profile starts in his angry eyes. He’s got that old look, “You know I did it for Allah but you have to prove it first in your Satan’s court”. How long are we going to let these guys run around loose? They are entering the country every hour in Detroit.

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- encinom
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 11:49am
  The one problem with your theory is that Ebel seems more like a Beckerhead, a white supremacist. http://www.wtsp.com/news/national/article/306287/81/White-supremacist-linked-to-Texas-car-chase-Colo-slaying
  
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- Sargeking
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 12:52pm
  ENCODED: I knew you were out there. If you guys hate this thread so much you can always go hiking on the North Korean border.
  
  Report this comment
- BenKatz
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 5:29pm
  Did you bother to read the link? You should probably lay off the “spiff balling” in the future.
  
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Proverbs17-12NLT
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:00am
I love it when the bad guys or girls die in the end, seems so fitting.

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thereyougoagain
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 8:05am
Is it just me?

Does this “Evan dude” look a little like that “shape shifter dude” that was in that other Blaze post?

Ha, Ha, Ha, ….

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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 9:58am
  “… hooked up to equipment for organ harvesting.”
  
  Anyone else find this idea appalling? Harvesting human organs from prisoners, seems pretty creepy.
  
  Report this comment
- dublinthewagons
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:41am
  Warmunger: for the first time in his life he will be good for something, well his body parts anyway.
  I think it is only proper.
  
  Report this comment
EP46
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 6:20am
Was he working for the rich Saudi family trying to get the Saudi sex offender out of prison & sent to Saudi Arabia? Is he involved with the killing at all or is this just cover ? Would not want to upset the Saudis

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Cadcamtrainer
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 5:00am
My house got robed about 1 month ago. I was out of town and my wife was alone when it happened. She dialed 911 and the police was there in minutes. Every one was polite, professional and a police lady hanged around “filing papers” until morning just to be there and make sure my wife was safe and not scared until the sun come up. Thank you Pasco County Sheriff’s Dept.

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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:00am
  She is lucky they didn’t shoot at her. it is a 50/50 chance when the police become involved.
  
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savagenatn
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 4:51am
amazing how reporters practically fall all over themselves to tell us the race of a “suspect” if he’s white, but if the creep is black or a moooooslim or chicano, they somehow fail to report what color they are. Way to go media, you are some sorry SOB’s.

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- Melika
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 8:02am
  Yeah, try finding a picture if the suspect isn’t white and if you do get one, it’s from when they were 10 years old. They don’t ever drag out the mug shots.
  
  The reason they do that is because it’s all whitey’s fault. Every crime committed by a non-white is the direct result of something a white guy did – you know, like go to work, getting an education, practicing self-control, the sort of stuff that makes a society successful.
  
  Report this comment
- jamesalm
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 8:13am
  Have Blaze members ALREADY forgotten this news story?
  
  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/20/is-colorado-correction-chiefs-death-linked-to-muslim-prisoner-denied-transfer-to-saudi-arabia/
  
  Where is the redaction? They (and the rest of the media who posted this “theory”) look like absolute FOOLS.
  
  Report this comment
- catty
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:52am
  It’s always a Muslim terrorist until it isn’t…Then the accusations just go away except for dear Sargequeen.
  
  Report this comment
LouisianaPatriot
Posted on March 22, 2013 at 1:24am
This seems weird to me: “Authorities in Texas said Ebel fired on them when they tried to stop his car. He was eventually shot by authorities who say he is essentially dead but is hooked up to equipment for organ harvesting.”

Organ harvesting. Wouldn’t this guy be an extremely bad candidate to “harvest” organs from? What kind of diseases and drugs would he have in his system?

And are we harvesting organs from people without their consent now, such as is done in China?

I doubt that he had the “I am donating my organs” notation on his drivers license. But then again, maybe I am wrong. Or maybe his next of kin gave permission.

Regardless, organ harvesting without permission smacks really badly of an altered society that I firmly reject.

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- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on March 22, 2013 at 10:02am
  I found this to be a sick idea as well. Very creepy. America is not the country I was brought up to believe it is.
  
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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:58pm
One less jackass that the taxpayers have to support. Having several felonies on his record, one as late as 2008, why was he paroled? Did they not perform a psych exam on him? Does Colorado recognize that this man used a gun illegally?

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DAYWATCHER
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:10pm
Hi MONK and RJJ

AUSer….My brother is a law officer and I would bet the O-bozo bumper sticker you have on your skateboard, that someday you are going to be screaming and crying for a “pig” to come and save you no good lying a$$. Who knows, it might me kicking you butt and my brother that shows up to help …you as it were…. Just keep that in mind you POS.

God bless those that protect and serve.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:01pm
The closest that Clements came to being a police officer was when he was a parole officer in another state. From that he worked his way up through the system as an administrator and was hired by the State of Colorado to continue to be a bureaucratic administrator. I really don’t think he ever wore a uniform for a single day in this career.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:37pm
I had been hoping that the story would appear here, but this hardly adds anything to what I heard in the news a few hours ago. We can expect more on this story, and it may look now as if the authorities assumption earlier is no where near to the truth. Any of you trolls out there think that any of the gun laws in Colorado would in any way have stopped this from happening?

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zetuff
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:34pm
its global warming.. climate change..lol

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AUsername
Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:15pm
the sun cooked him up and now he is pink like a pig lo.

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- The-Monk
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:33pm
  AUsername
  
  What is “pink like a pig”?
  
  Is it like pink like an OWS a-hole like you? Got your Gay Fawkes mask ready?
  
  Whats the temperature in your Moms basement? Comfee? Warm enough? Got all your clothes washed? Got some food?
  
  Report this comment
- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:46pm
  Hi MONK, LOL, I was just going to ignore him this time. I thought his post alone was more than enough damage.
  
  Report this comment
- DAYWATCHER
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 10:58pm
  Hi MONK and RJJ
  
  My brother is a law officer. I would bet just as sure as you have O-bazo’s bumper sticker on your skate board that when the time comes you will be screaming and crying for a “pig” to save your no good lying a$$. But may be it would me kicking your butt and my brother would be the one to show up and help… you as it were….
  
  God bless those willing to protect and serve.
  
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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:14pm
  Hi DAYWATCHER, Great post and well put. My best wishes for your brother. I’ve been there and done that too.
  
  Report this comment
- DAYWATCHER
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:23pm
  Thanks RJJ
  
  I have been a fan of yours and MONK for a long time now. That guy just struck a nerve with me. Yes there are bad cops just as there are bad people in every walk of life. But most seem to forget that those that choose to put their lives on the line everyday deserve our respect. I for one respect my younger brother and all officers of the law.
  
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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 21, 2013 at 11:55pm
  DAYWATCHER, Thank you, I do appreciate that. THE-MONK must be on some other story now, but I am sure he would say the same thing. You are right about that. There are some really bad cops out there, I know, because I have worked with a number of them too. If it wasn’t for the unions the cities, counties, and states could get rid of some of them.
  
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