PHOTO: A shooting at the Kaufman County Courthouse left a assistant district attorney, mark Hasse, right, dead on Jan. 31, 2013.
A shooting at the Kaufman County Courthouse left a assistant district attorney, mark Hasse, right, dead on Jan. 31, 2013.
ABC/AP
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Texas Prosecutors' Killers Had Faces Covered, Reward Upped to $64,500
Reward Raised to $70,000 In Execution-Style Slaying of Prosecutor
Prosecutor Mark Hasse Killing: Investigators Working Around the Clock to Solve Execution-Style Murder
Feb 01, 2013 01:04 PM
Kaufman Co. Asst. DA Mark Hasse Likely Targeted in Fatal Shooting: Police
Reward offered for information leading to arrest, conviction of gunman (Video)
By Frank Heinz | Friday, Feb 1, 2013 | Updated 12:05 AM CDT
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Two-Op ... 98761.html
Assistant DA shot dead outside Texas courthouse (Video)
by MATT GOODMAN / WFAA
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Updated Thursday, Jan 31 at 3:47 PM
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas -- Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot dead outside the courthouse Thursday, spurring a complete lockdown of the grounds and an active search for the two shooters.
Kaufman County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Pat Laney said the suspects ambushed the assistant DA on his way in to court and shot him multiple times in a parking lot at about 8:50 a.m. They then fled the scene. The courthouse was locked down and later closed for the day.
Hasse, a longtime prosecutor for the Dallas County District Attorney's Office and current assistant DA for Kaufman County, is the man who was shot and killed, the Sheriff's Office confirmed. He was a felony prosecutor who headed murder and drug cases.
Hasse joined the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office in July 2010, records show.
"Mark was really a great guy, he was the consummate prosecutor, he was hard-working, loved his job, and juries loved him for some reason," said Dallas attorney Ted Steinke, who oversaw Hasse in the Dallas County DA's Office. "He wasn't very large in stature, but juries loved him and he exuded confidence."
Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood told WFAA's Jonathan Betz that he was not working on any high-profile cases that required any extra security. Investigators are following up on his caseload, however.
However, hours after Hasse was gunned down, the Department of Justice issued a release on its website crediting the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office with helping investigate two known members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang. They pled guilty the day of the shooting to racketeering charges.
Before the release was issued, The Dallas Morning News credited "authorities with knowledge of the assistant DA's caseload" as saying he was "heavily involved" in an investigation of the Aryan Brotherhood. According to the release, Ben Christian Dillon, aka "Tuff", of Houston, and James Marshall Meldrum, aka "Dirty", both "agreed to commit multiple acts of murder, robbery, arson, kidnapping and narcotics tracking" for the Aryan Brotherhood.
Meldrum is from Dallas, the feds say.
Earlier, Wood classified Hasse's shooting as an "ambush" and told Betz that courthouse security is always tight, but not in the parking lot.
"It's a scary deal," Steinke said. "Every prosecutor every once in a while gets a death threat, and we take them seriously, but this is the first time in 20 years that I can remember here in North Texas a prosecutor actually being assaulted."
During a press conference, Sheriff David Burns and Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said Hasse was heading to misdemeanor court when he was assaulted and gunned down.
"When you get up into the level, you are really attacking society as a whole because our whole society is based on our criminal justice system and getting our day in court," Burns said. "This is not how to handle our business."
The Texas Department of Public Safety sent out an alert for troopers to be on lookout for a silver "older model" Ford Taurus. According to the alert, the two suspects are wearing all black and at least one is in a tactical vest. DPS choppers are flying low over the treeline in north Kaufman.
Kaufman County Crime Stoppers has issued a $10,000 reward for information leading to who is responsible. To submit an anonymous tip, you're asked to call 817.847.7522.
Kaufman Independent School District Superintendent Todd Williams said all schools in the district are also locked down as authorities search for the shooters. Forney ISD spokesman Larry Coker said all schools have been ordered to lock their doors until the suspects are caught. Administrators will reevaluate the plan at 2 p.m.
Forney is about 22 miles northwest of Kaufman.
In an email sent to staff, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office confirmed the victim was a prosecutor and was fatally shot.
Below is the entire email sent by the Dallas County DA:
"This message is not intended to scare anyone but please be advised. A Kaufman County prosecutor was fatally shot a few minutes ago outside the Kaufman County Courthouse in Kaufman. Two masked gunman are the suspects. They have not been apprehended yet.
Please be aware of your surroundings when leaving the building for your safety. This is probably a isolated incident but until further notice if you plan to work past dark today please be careful and ask security for assistance escorting you to your vehicles if needed. I will keep you informed as to the arrest of the suspects when i am notified. Don’t panic but please be aware of your environment when leaving the building."
Employees at businesses nearby say they've seen heavy police activity and heard reports of the shooting. Cathy Coulson, a real estate agent at Re/Max across from the courthouse, said she was not at work when the shooting happened, but reported seeing police helicopters searching overhead.
"I didn't hear anything, I came into my office right after it happened, but I talked to one of my clients that's two blocks behind us and he said that he heard it," Coulson said, adding that she's seen police walking the streets. "They don't have time to come tell us to lock down, we have enough sense to do that; we've seen them going around and the helicopters."
Tonya Ratcliff, a clerk at The Kaufman County Tax Office located to the right of the courthouse, said officers came inside and asked them to lock their doors.
Kaufman is a town of 7,000 about 30 miles east of Dallas.
http://www.kvue.com/news/state/Sheriffs ... 99911.html
... now these other incidents ...
Texas district attorney, wife found dead at home
Mar 31, 8:33 AM (ET)
By NOMAAN MERCHANT
KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) - A central Texas prosecutor and his wife were found killed in their house two months after one of his assistants was gunned down near their office, authorities said.
Investigators found the bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, on Saturday, Kaufman County sheriff's Lt. Justin Lewis said. Police, FBI agents, Texas Rangers and deputies were part of the investigation.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot to death in a parking lot a block from his office on Jan. 31. No arrests have been made in his death.
Lewis declined to say how the couple died or whether authorities believe their deaths are linked to Hasse's. He wouldn't provide further details. Kaufman County is 33 miles southeast of Dallas.
Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh told The Dallas Morning News that the McLellands had been shot in their home and although investigators didn't know if their deaths were related to Hasse's killing, they couldn't discount it.
"It is a shock," Aulbaugh told the newspaper. "It was a shock with Mark Hasse, and now you can just imagine the double shock and until we know what happened, I really can't confirm that it's related but you always have to assume until it's proven otherwise."
Sam Rosander, who lives in the same unincorporated area of Kaufman County as the McLellands, told The Associated Press on Saturday that sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway for about a month after Hasse was killed.
Aulbaugh said recently that the FBI was checking to see if Hasse's killing could be related to the March 19 killing of Colorado Department of Corrections head Tom Clements, who was gunned down after answering the doorbell at his home.
Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities believe killed Clements and a pizza deliveryman two days earlier, was killed in a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.
Hasse was chief of the organized crime unit when he was an assistant prosecutor in Dallas County in the 1980s, and he handled similar cases in Kaufman County. After Hasse was killed, McLelland had said Hasse was one of 12 attorneys on his staff, all of whom handle hundreds of cases at a time.
"Anything anybody can think of, we're looking through," McLelland said after Hasse's death.
McLelland graduated from the University of Texas before a 23-year career in the Army, according to the website for the district attorney's office. He later earned his law degree from the Texas Wesleyan School of Law.
He and his wife have two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130331/DA5C2Q401.html
I'm sure these kinds of incidents happen all the time and I/we just don't notice but this recent cluster caught my attention since they are in Texas (and Colorado).
Woman tied to gun used to kill Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements
Colorado authorities say Stevie Marie Vigil, 22, bought the firearm from a licensed dealer and transferred it to Evan Ebel, a felon accused of shooting Clements at his home March 19. He was most recently sentenced to four years in prison for punching a prison guard in 2008.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, March 28, 2013, 7:07 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/w ... -1.1301075
Tom Clements (public official)
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Tom Clements (1954 or 1955 - March 19, 2013) was head of the Colorado Department of Corrections. He was shot dead at his home in Monument, Colorado after answering the door on March 19, 2013.[1] His assassination drew international attention; it came hours before Governor John Hickenlooper signed into law new gun control laws.[2]
Clements was known as a progressive leader who cared about the mental health of his prisoners and worked to ensure their transition into society once released, so no one could understand why anyone would want to kill him. “Tom Clements was someone who worked in a cold, dark world with a remarkably open and generous heart,” said an emotional Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper outside the the State Capitol Wednesday.[3] Before moving to Colorado to lead the Colorado DOC, Clements had worked in similar positions in Missouri.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clemen ... fficial%29