Authorities investigating the death of Colorado's prisons chief told law enforcement officers on Wednesday to be vigilant of two known associates of a white supremacist prison gang, the Associated Press said.
James Lohr and Thomas Guolee are not seen as suspects in the death of Colorado Department of Corrections chief Tom Clements, but their names have been brought up during the investigation, El Paso County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Kramer said. They are known associates of the 211 Crew, the same gang whose members also included Evan Ebel, who is a chief suspect in Clements' murder on March 19 and of nathan Leon, a piza deliveryman.
Ebel was killed in a shootout with Texas authorities after the deaths. Investigators have said the gun Ebel used in the shootout was also used to kill Clements when the prisons chief answered the front of his home. Ebel is the only suspect that investigators have named in Clements' death, but they have not given a motive. They have said they are looking into his connection to the gang he joined while in prison, and whether that was connected to the attack.
"Investigators are looking at a lot of different possibilities. We are not stepping out and saying it's a hit or it's not a hit. We're looking at all possible motives," Kramer said on Wednesday.He also said Lohr and Guolee together may be headed to Nevada or Texas. Both are believed to be armed and dangerous.
The 211 gang is seen as one of the most dangerous white supremacist groups operating in U.S. prisons, founded in 1995 to protect white prisoners from attacks and operates only in Colorado, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups.
Clements was killed in his home on March 19. Born in St. Louis, he worked for 31 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, both in prison and as a parole officer, before he joined the Colorado Department of Corrections in 2011.
