Tom Clements (public official)

Thomas Lynn Clements (October 2, 1954 – March 19, 2013) was head of the Colorado Department of Corrections until he was assassinated on March 19, 2013.

Clements was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He married Lisa Smith in 1984 and had two daughters. Before moving to Colorado to lead the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC), Clements had worked in a similar position in Missouri.

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. “Tom Clements was someone who worked in a cold, dark world with a remarkably open and generous heart,” said Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper the day after Clements was killed.

Tom Clements was shot dead at his home in Monument, Colorado after answering the door on March 19, 2013. His assassination drew international attention as it came hours before Governor John Hickenlooper signed new gun control laws.

The substantial evidence in the case indicates that the assassin was Evan Spencer Ebel, a 28-year-old white supremacist and follower of Asatru. Ebel was killed during a high-speed chase with Texas law enforcement two days after Clements' death. Ebel had driven to Wise County, Texas. A Texas sheriff's deputy recognized that the car Ebel was driving matched the car suspected in the Clements killing in Colorado—an older black Cadillac sedan, with mismatched license plates. That Texas deputy who first pulled over Ebel's vehicle (James Boyd) was shot in the head by Ebel but survived. The shooting was captured on the deputy's cruiser's video. After a wild chase, and after engaging law enforcement with gunfire, he collided with a semi-truck carrying a large payload of gravel, and died from his injuries without regaining consciousness.

Police also found items that they concluded were stolen from another recently murdered Colorado man, Nathan Leon: a pizza delivery shirt and an insulated pizza delivery container. Leon was forced to make a rambling recorded audio statement before he was murdered. Police believe that Ebel killed Leon to get the pizza delivery "props" that Ebel subsequently used to feign a pizza delivery to the Clements home. The gun found in the stolen Cadillac matched the ballistics of the gun used in the killings of Clements and Leon.

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Wikipedia