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| FILE - This undated image provided by the Colorado Department of Corrections shows its director Tom Clements. Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Kramer says Clements was shot to death around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night March 19, 2013 when he answered his front door in Monument, north of Colorado Springs. Personal safety is always on the mind of most correctional officers and prison administrators when they’re working the prison tower or shaking down inmate cells for contraband. But increasingly it’s also a concern at the end of their shifts and off prison grounds. The slaying of Clements has officers checking their review mirrors more often and industry experts recommending a closer look at security off the job. |
COLORADO SPRINGS,
Colo. (AP) -- Colorado corrections chief Tom Clements and his wife
were watching television when the doorbell rang last Tuesday night.
Clements opened the door and was shot to death.
"My
life was changed forever," Lisa Clements told hundreds of people,
including corrections guards and officials from around the country, who
gathered at a memorial service for her husband Monday.
Nearly
a week after Clements' death, investigators in Colorado say the gun
suspect Evan Ebel used in a shootout with authorities in Texas is the
same one used to kill Clements. However, they don't know yet whether
Ebel is the person who shot Clements, whether he acted alone and what
motivated the slaying of a corrections' chief admired by prisoner
advocates and prison guards alike. Authorities warned that could take
some time.
Until investigators determine
whether Ebel, paroled from Colorado's prison system, in January, acted
alone, "it's hard to know what his role was," Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El
Paso County Sheriff's Office told The Associated Press.
"He remains a suspect in our investigation, obviously, especially after receiving this confirmed link from Texas," he said.
No other suspects have been named.
Denver
police suspect Ebel was involved in the killing of pizza deliveryman
Nathan Leon. His body was found two days before Clements was killed.
Investigators
also do not know whether the pizza box and Domino's Pizza shirt or
jacket found in the car Ebel was driving when he was captured in Texas -
similar to one spotted near Clements home - were used by the killer to
persuade Clements to open the door of his home, Kramer said.
A federal law enforcement official says Ebel was a member of the 211 Crew, a white supremacist prison gang in Colorado.
Kramer said investigators are looking at who Ebel's associates were in prison and outside of prison.
At
the memorial service at New Life Church, both Lisa Clements and Gov.
John Hickenlooper spoke about Clements' strong belief in redemption. His
family said he decided as a teenager to work in corrections after
visiting his uncle in prison, and he worked to reduce the use of
solitary confinement in Colorado prisons.
Standing
with her two daughters, Lisa Clements, a psychologist who oversees
Colorado's state mental health institutes, said her husband of 28 years
would want justice as well as forgiveness.
"We
want everyone who hears Tom's story to know that he lived his life
believing in redemption, in the ability of the human heart to be
changed. He would want justice certainly but moreover he'd want
forgiveness. Our family prays for the family of the man who took Tom's
life and we will pray for forgiveness in our own hearts and our own
peace," she said.
Hickenlooper, who hired Clements about two years ago, told mourners that he was both pragmatic and principled.
"He had common sense and he had courage," Hickenlooper said.
Hickenlooper
is a longtime friend of the suspect's father, attorney Jack Ebel, who
testified two years ago before state lawmakers that solitary confinement
was destroying his son's psyche.
Hickenlooper
confirmed he mentioned the case to Clements as an example of why the
prison system needed reform before the job was offered, but the governor
said he did not mention Evan Ebel by name.
There
was no indication that Hickenlooper's relationship with Jack Ebel
played a role in the shooting. Hickenlooper said he did not having any
role in Evan Ebel's parole in January.
Jack Ebel issued a statement offering condolences to all those who have suffered from his son's actions.
Clements,
born in St. Louis, worked for 31 years in the Missouri Department of
Corrections, both in prison and as a parole officer, before being hired
in Colorado. He began a review of the state's solitary confinement
system and eventually reduced the number of prisoners being held in
solitary confinement. He closed a new prison built specifically to hold
such prisoners - Colorado State Penitentiary II.
