National Post (National Edition)
Suspected killer, white supremacist dies in chase
DECATUR, TEX.• A former inmate and white supremacist who may be tied to the slaying of Colorado prisons’ chief Tom Clements died after a highspeed chase and shootout with Texas deputies, authorities said Friday.
Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, had a long record of convictions since 2003 for various crimes including assaulting a prison guard in 2008. He is also suspected of killing a pizza delivery man whose body was found Sunday.
Ebel was a member of a white supremacist prison gang called the 211s, said a federal law enforcement official.
Colorado officials would not confirm Ebel’s gang ties or say whether they had anything to do with the death of Mr. Clements, who was gunned down Tuesday night after he answered his front door.
Denver police said they were “confident” Ebel was also involved in the death of the pizza man, Nathan Leon, 27.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and local officials are also looking at another case that appears similar to the Clements killing: the Jan. 31 slaying of Mark Hasse, a prosecutor who was shot in the parking lot of the courthouse in Kaufman, about 161 kms from where Ebel crashed and got into the shootout.
Ebel’s tie to the Clements’ killing comes from his car, a black Cadillac with mismatched Colorado plates that fits the description of a vehicle seen outside Mr. Clements’ home just before the shooting.
Texas authorities spotted the car Thursday and gave chase after Ebel shot and wounded a deputy. They fatally shot him after he crashed into a semi and opened fire.
Ebel is not on the radar of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, but it rates the gang as one of the most vicious white supremacist groups operating in U.S. prisons, comparable to the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
Founded in 1995 to protect white prisoners from attacks, it operates only in Colorado and has anywhere from a few hundred to 1,000 members, senior fellow Mark Potok said.
The gang has grown into a sophisticated criminal enterprise where members are assigned military titles like “general” and extort money from fellow prisoners, regardless of race. Released members are expected to make money to support those still in prison, Mr. Potok said. They have to attack someone to get in and can only get out by dying.
Vicky Bankey said Ebel was in his teens when she lived across from him in suburban Denver until his father moved a few years ago. She remembers seeing Ebel once jump off the roof of his house. “He was a handful. I’d see him do some pretty crazy things,” she said.
“He had a hair-trigger temper as a kid.”