Ebel
This undated photo released by the Colorado Department of Corrections shows paroled inmate Evan Spencer Ebel. Ebel, 28, is the man who led Texas authorities on a 100 mph car chase that ended in a shootout Thursday, March 21, 2013, and may be linked to the slaying of Colorado's state prison chief. (AP Photo/Colorado Department of Corrections)
Photo by Evan Clinton
Emergency workers take a wounded suspect to an ambulance in Decatur on Thursday. The man led authorities on a chase after he was suspected of shooting a Montague County deputy.
Courtesy Bowie News Authorities in Montague County examine the scene where a deputy was shot and wounded Thursday. The suspect led officers in a high-speed chase that ended in a crash in Wise County. The man was shot and critically wounded when he fired on officers there.
Courtesy Bowie News Deputy James Boyd is pictured at work in the Montague County Sheriff’s Office. Boyd was shot and wounded Thursday as he attempted a traffic stop on U.S. 287.
Photo by =2020322=
photos Courtesy of Wise County Messenger Authorities in Decatur work the scene of a fiery wreck that followed a running gunbattle Thursday on U.S. Highway 287. The driver of the wrecked car was shot and critically wounded.$RETURN$$RETURN$
The man possibly linked to two murders and the wounding of a Montague County deputy has died. Tarrant County Medical Examiner's spokesman Roger Metcalf says a man police believe is 28-year-old Evan Spencer Ebel has died and an autopsy has begun. Metcalf says the man's identity still must be officially confirmed through fingerprint analysis.
The shooting of a Montague County deputy Thursday may be related to the slaying of the executive director of the Colorado prison system and a pizza delivery man in Colorado..
Ebel was critically wounded in a shootout with authorities shortly after the shooting of the deputy in Montague County on U.S 287.
The deputy was shot about 11 a.m. while he made a traffic stop on U.S. Highway 287 at the intersection of Texas 59. He is James Boyd, 27, a three-year veteran of the office.
Montague County Sheriff Paul Cunningham said Boyd was shot when he got out of his car at a traffic stop but was able to radio information in about the suspect and vehicle.
Cunningham confirmed that Boyd was shot three times, once in the head and twice in the chest. He was found lying beside his patrol unit. His life was possibly saved by body armor. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Fort Worth.
The suspect’s vehicle, a dark-colored, older-model sedan, was spotted by authorities in neighboring Wise County and a running shootout began as the chase entered Decatur. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, Wise County deputies and Decatur police were involved in the pursuit, which reached 100 mph.
The suspect turned off U.S. 287 onto U.S. Highway 380 in Decatur, where the vehicle collided with a rock-hauling truck and caught fire. Shots continued after the collision, and the suspect was shot in the head. Ebel was flown to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
The Associated Press reported Ebel was in a white supremacist prison gang called the 211s. A federal law enforcement official confirmed his identity and gang affiliation. Legal records show he was convicted of several crimes in Colorado dating back to 2003, including assaulting a prison guard in 2008.
Prison chief Tom Clements, 58, was shot and killed on his doorstep in Monument, a town north of Colorado Springs. Authorities have not said if they thought the attack was related to his job.
Authorities are also investigating whether Ebel was involved in the murder of a pizza delivery man in Denver on Sunday. Texas authorities said a Domino's pizza uniform jacket and a cardboard pizza box was found in the wrecked car and may tie Ebel to the murder of Nathan Leon, 27, who was killed delivering pizza near Golden, Colo.
Wichita County Sheriff David Duke said one of his deputies followed the suspect’s vehicle through Wichita Falls because the vehicle is a type often used in narcotics trafficking. Duke said the driver never violated any traffic rules, so the deputy pulled off. Duke also said some of his officers have gone to Montague County to help on patrol duty while that office responds to the shooting of one of its own.
Southbound U.S. 287 at the shooting scene was closed for several hours so investigators could work.
Clements, 58, had become head of the Colorado prison system in 2011 after working in Missouri prisons for 30 years.
The Wise County Messenger, the Bowie News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Comments » 7
bobert writes:
I read an article a few months ago in a magazine that I am unable to relocate via internet search. It was an article on suicides and was directed at the possibility there were many more than reported because the method taken was not obvious at all to be a suicide. Most were in the area of automobile "accidents", such as high speed crashes into very solid structures, head-on crashes with other vehicles when there seemed no apparent reason for such to happen, and other "how could this happen" when it was obvious that death would be a result.
I can't help but wonder if some of the well known events that seem to occur almost daily are possibly, in reality, a suicide. So many multiple shooting incidents end with the shooter either being killed by police or self inflicted fire. Yes, it is obvious the self inflicted is a suicide. Generally, it could be assumed the suicide part came about when there was no hope for escape. But, is it possible it was a suicide from the very beginning with very evil intent in accomplishing it? Is it possible the shooter decided to commit suicide, but decided to let the police to it?
To me, if there are such situations occurring, it even more weakens the theory that guns kill people and not the more reasonable possibility that people kill people. I do not own a weapon, but I think the gun legislation debate is a great deal like thinking that in a rape case, a certain male organ is more responsible than is the rapist.
PoorRichard writes:
Good riddance. I really don't care if he's dead because of a question of suicide.
If the reporting on the incident is accurate, a white supremicist rabid dog has been put down...
That's what's supposed to happen.
Trapper writes:
What you are referring to is SBC, Suicide By Cop, and it happens more often than you might expect. There have been several cases right here in Wichita Falls, that if you read between the lines, are just that.
Wichita_Willie writes:
Glad to hear he's gone. All I can say is that we are all extremely lucky that the young deputy in Montague County appears to be doing OK. It's sad about what this animal did in Colorado but can you just imagine what was going on in the deputy's mind when all he!! broke lose.
My hat is off to all the members of the Montague County, Wise County, DPS and Decatur PD units who were involved in this incident yesterday. This could have become worse, much worse if the suspect had managed to shoot anyone else or had been able to take hostages somewhere in Decatur.
catman8_99#209560 writes:
OK, the punk is dead. I don't much care except that it saves several entities the cost of a trial. What I would like to know is how the deputy is doing. Hoping sincerely that he has a sucessful recovery.
flamingo writes:
There seems to be quite a few murders lately related to White Supremacist Groups....the Prosecuter, the Prison Chief, A Fellow in Dallas not long ago....odd.
yellowrose writes:
My Niece in Colorado said that they were keeping him on life support in order to donate his organs. So the lowlife had to die in order to help others. I think that someone is a big coward who chooses SBC or Suicide by Cop. If a person is that distraught, do it yourself; don't make another person responsible.
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