Colorado shooting suspect dies in Texas

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DECATUR, Texas, March 22 (UPI) -- A suspect in a shootout with police in Texas has died and police in Denver say he was the man sought in the slaying of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements.

Clements, 58, director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, was killed late Tuesday when he opened the front door at his home in Monument, Colo.

The suspect in Texas, whose name hasn't been officially released, led police on a chase Thursday before his vehicle was involved in a collision with a tractor-trailer, Wise County (Texas) Sheriff David Walker said Thursday. The suspect was shot during an exchange of gunfire in Decatur, Texas, after the crash.

Citing federal and state law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, The Denver Post reported Friday the suspect was Evan Ebel, 28, a member of a white supremacist prison gang.

He had been on life support at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, and was considered brain dead after the shootout in Decatur. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office said Ebel was removed from life support and has died, the Post reported.

Colorado law enforcement officials are looking into whether Ebel may have killed 27-year-old pizza delivery driver Nathan Collin Leon in Denver Sunday, the newspaper said.

The Denver Police Department posted a message on its Twitter feed Friday saying investigators "are confident the Texas suspect is also suspect in the Denver/Golden case."

Ebel was driving a black, four-door Cadillac with Colorado license plates. Colorado police had said Wednesday they were looking for a Cadillac or Lincoln in the shooting death of Clements.