A man who led Texas authorities on a wild chase and shootout on Thursday is now a focus of the investigation into the shooting death of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements.
The man was driving a black, four-door Cadillac with Colorado license plates and was speeding south. Colorado authorities had urged the public to be on the lookout for a boxy, dark Cadillac or Lincoln.
Wise County Sheriff David Walker said at a news conference that the suspect was wounded by deputies in a firefight and was on life support and considered brain dead.
The man shot many rounds at deputies from a handgun, firing from the window of his car and then shooting at them again after his Cadillac was smashed by an 18-wheeler, Walker said.
"He didn't plan on being taken alive," said Rex Hoskins, the police chief in Decatur, Texas, where the chase ended. "He was trying to hurt somebody."
Authorities have not yet identified the suspect, who was described as a white man in his 30s. His fingerprints were being taken to confirm his identity.
"There's no identification on him — nothing," Walker said.
"He needed to be taken off the street, no matter what," Walker said.
Colorado law enforcement officials are headed to Texas to investigate the man in connection with the killing of Clements and others, Walker said.
"We're very fortunate that none of the officers were injured," Walker said at the news conference, just hours after the chase and shootout in Decatur, northwest of Fort Worth.
Colorado authorities are investigating whether there is a connection between the Cadillac driver and the murder of 27-year-old pizza delivery driver Nathan Collin Leon, who answered a call in Denver on Sunday and was shot multiple times.
"I heard it's possibly connected," said El Paso County Sheriff's Sgt. Joe Roybal.
Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez said Denver and Golden detectives were on their way to Texas to join the investigation.
"We're not talking about evidence," she said.
"There's nothing that's been processed in that car," he said. "It's locked up and will be processed by the Texas Rangers tomorrow."
Clements, 58, was shot about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday as he answered the door of his home on Colonial Park Drive in Monument. Clements was the executive director of the state Department of Corrections.
Authorities immediately began seeking a dark-colored Lincoln or a Cadillac that was seen in the area at the time. The Cadillac driver emerged as the main person of interest in Clements' shooting, but Colorado officials stopped short of directly linking the man in Texas.
"Nothing has been confirmed yet," said Lt. Jeff Kramer, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff's office. "Nobody has raised the red flag down there yet. We don't know why he ran."
"I can't tell you why we are interested," Roybal said. "Our officers are working with the FBI and the local authorities to determine whether there is a connection. The crime scene has to be processed. That takes time and we're not there yet. It's still early."
The Wise County Messenger reported that the chase began at the intersection of U.S. 287 and Highway 59. The chase started in Montague County, Texas, where a sheriff's deputy tried to stop the Cadillac for a routine traffic violation.
The driver of the car opened fire on the deputy, hitting him three times before taking off toward Fort Worth, Hoskins said.
His officers and deputies from the Wise County Sheriff's Office soon spotted the Cadillac.
"The subject was driving around 100 miles per hour, shooting out the windows at the officers," Hoskins told The Denver Post.
The driver sped in and out of traffic before being hit by an 18-wheeler in Decatur.
"At that point, he got out and opened fire on the officers again," Hoskins said. "They returned fire. He was hit."
Hoskins told the Messenger that during the rampage, the suspect fired 20 to 30 rounds from some kind of automatic or semi-automatic weapon.
The man was flown to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth and was in critical condition, the Messenger reported.
No comments:
Post a Comment