Updated 5:57 PM ET
DECATUR, Texas Investigators found bomb-making materials and pants that appeared to have blood on them in the car of a man suspected of killing Colorado's prisons chief, according to documents made public Tuesday.
As reported by CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, police recovered from suspect Evan Ebel's wrecked Cadillac a duffel bag and a backpack that contained what's described as "miscellaneous bomb making materials," "black powder," and a "black powder substitute." The inventory from the Texas Crime Lab also reveals that police found a "...document with apparent bomb making instructions...," "...surveillance cameras...," and a wireless "...surveillance system..."
Also found were a Domino's Pizza worker's shirt and visor, and a pizza carrier bag along with zip ties and duct tape.
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Ebel was killed in a shootout with Texas authorities last week.
Authorities in Decatur sent the items to Colorado agencies investigating the death of corrections chief Tom Clements and the slaying of a pizza deliveryman whose body was found two days before Clements was killed.
Colorado investigators refused to discuss the evidence.
"We don't want to speak about their relevancy or what they might mean to our investigation," said Sgt. Joe Roybal, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators said Monday that gun evidence linked Ebel to the death of Clements.
The El Paso County sheriff's office said that "unique and often microscopic markings" found on shell casings in Texas and Colorado leads investigators to conclude that the gun Evan Ebel used to shoot at authorities in Texas was the same gun used to kill Tom Clements at his home on Tuesday.
It had been known that the casings found at both scenes were of the same caliber and brand but Monday's announcement was the first time Colorado investigators made a direct link between Ebel and Clements' death.
Emergency personnel are seen at the site of a crash and shootout with police involving the driver of a black Cadillac with Colorado plates, in Decatur, Texas, Thursday, March 21, 2013.
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AP/Wise County Messenger, Joe Duty
What remained unknown though was why Clements was killed when he answered his front door Tuesday night and whether Ebel acted alone.
"There are no answers at this time surrounding motive and gaining these answers could be a lengthy process for investigators," sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer said in statement. The announcement came just hours after hundreds of people, including corrections officials and guards from as far away as Morocco, gathered for a memorial service to honor Clements.
A federal law enforcement official said Ebel had been a member of the 211s, a white supremacist prison gang in Colorado. El Paso County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer said Monday that investigators are trying to determine whether there was any gang involvement in the killing, but he stressed that's only one aspect of a broad investigation.
Denver police say Ebel is also a suspect in the March 17 slaying of pizza delivery man Nathan Leon.
Hickenlooper is a longtime friend of the suspect's father, attorney Jack Ebel, who testified two years ago before state lawmakers that solitary confinement was destroying his son's psyche.
Prison chief killed in Colorado
Hickenlooper confirmed he mentioned the case to Clements as an example of why the prison system needed reform before the job was offered, but the governor said he did not mention Evan Ebel by name.
There was no indication that Hickenlooper's relationship with Jack Ebel played a role in the shooting. Hickenlooper said he did not having any role in Evan Ebel's parole in January.
Jack Ebel issued a statement offering condolences to all those who have suffered from his son's actions.
Clements, born in St. Louis, worked for 31 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, both in prison and as a parole officer, before taking the top corrections' job in Colorado just over two years ago. He began a review of the state's solitary confinement system and eventually reduced the number of prisoners being held in solitary. He closed a new prison built specifically to hold such prisoners -- Colorado State Penitentiary II.
His work won praise from groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the union representing prison workers, which called him a "leader who looked out for those he led."
Officials took additional security measures after Clements' death and placed the state prisons on lockdown Friday.
Following Clements' killing, corrections professionals said their jobs have grown more dangerous for themselves and their families because of the growing influence of prison gangs, their ability to communicate with affiliates on the outside through smuggled cellphones and the ease with which people can be found and tracked online.
Clements is at least the second head of a state prison system to be killed. The top administrator of the Oregon Department of Corrections, Michael Francke, was stabbed to death outside his office in 1989 in what prosecutors described as a bungled car burglary. A former state prison inmate was found guilty of aggravated murder in 1991 and sentenced to life in prison.
Source: http://www.news.theusalinks.com/2013/03/26/bomb-making-materials-found-in-colo-murder-suspects-car/
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