DENVER – Colorado investigators are saying 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 provides 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.

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.

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 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 rural area north of Colorado Springs.

Ebel, who was paroled in January, was fatally shot by authorities in Texas Thursday after a pursuit reaching 100 mph.

 

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