A former Colorado inmate, Evan Ebel, who was a white supremacist gang member is now the focus of an investigation into who killed the state's prison chief Tom Clements, CNN reported.
Clements was shot and killed Tuesday night, while answering the door at his home in Monument, Colorado. Witnesses reported seeing a black, boxy vehicle near the house at the time.
The case took a dramatic turn Thursday when authorities in northern Texas tried to pull over a man driving a black Cadillac. A shootout and a car crash ensued that left the driver dead and a sheriff's deputy seriously wounded. The driver was reportedly Ebel, who is both a former prisoner in Colorado and a former gang member who was out on parole, according to El Paso County, Colorado police department.
Ebel has had a long record of convictions since 2003 for various crimes including assaulting a prison guard in 2008, the Associated Press reported.
The Texas car chase started when a sheriff's deputy in Montague County, James Boyd, tried to pull over the Cadillac around 11 a.m. on Thursday. Ebel reportedly opened fire on Boyd, wounding him, before crashing into a semi truck.
After the crash, Ebel got out of the vehicle and began shooting at deputies and troopers. He shot at Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins four times as the chief tried to set up a roadblock.
"He wasn't planning on being taken alive," Hoskins said.
He was ultimately arrested.
Authorities have indicated that there are two different Colorado license plates on his Cadillac, which is suspicious to authorities, perhaps tying him to Clements' murder.
Ebel was a member of a white supremacist prison gang called the 211s, a federal law enforcement official said.
Clements had been chief of Colorado's prison system for over two years. He worked for 31 years as part of Missouri's Department of Corrections. Clements' funeral is Sunday.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper's said a public memorial service will take place in Colorado Springs on Monday.
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