Evan Ebel, Colo. Shooter, Had Bomb-Making Materials in Car
Evan Ebel, the man suspected of killing the chief of Colorado's prisons, reportedly had bomb-making materials and bloody pants in his car when he crashed in Texas. Authorities also found handwritten directions to the chief's home, maps, and other documents from the Department of Corrections. Police have speculated that Ebel was preparing an attack of some sort when he showed up at Tom Clements' home and killed him.
Ebel then went on the run, choosing to head to Texas, where he crashed his car and got into a firefight with police. He had spent several years in solitary confinement, according to Col. Governor John Hickenlooper. Ebel was reportedly a threat to those in general population and had to be kept apart from the rest of the community.
"From the beginning, Ebel seemed to have this bad streak, a streak of cruelty and anger. [His family] did everything they could. They tried. They worked with Evan again and again, but to no avail. He had a bad, bad streak," Gov. Hickenlooper told CNN's "State of the Union." Authorities also found a voice recorder, handwritten letters and documents, along with black powder in Ebel's car. They have not theorized what larger plan Ebel may have had in mind when he shot Clements and then fled.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"We don't want to speak about their relevancy or what they might mean to our investigation," Sgt. Joe Roybal told ABC News. "Everyone wants to know where he was headed to and why," said Capt. Kevin Benton. There have been rumors that Ebel had ties to a white supremacist gang while in prison and was interested in joining such a gang since a young age.
"He was very proud of his Sicilian heritage, and he always talked about wanting to kill so many people that he'd make Hitler jealous. He really was racist, but at the same time he did hang round with African-Americans at the camp, so it was very contradictory," one of his friends, Kurt Frey, told "Anderson Cooper 360."
"He's gone through so many bad things in his life that really, it just didn't surprise me that he ended up being killed in a shootout with police," Frey added. "He had a lot of anger towards authority. He never liked being told what to do and his time in isolation really only compacted that."
