Another two lives cut short due to (criminal) violence and gun culture in the US. The culture of death is endemic and needs to change from top down and bottom up. Wars bring death and violence home.
Police chief: No sign of fear from slain attorney
KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) Feb. 1, 2013 — Authorities don’t know whether a Texas prosecutor who had extensive experience with organized crime feared for his life before he was fatally shot, but they’re poring through the cases he handled for leads to his killer, officials said Friday.
No arrests have been made since Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was gunned down in a parking lot about a block from his office at the Kaufman County Courthouse. Authorities are searching for one or two suspects. Witnesses have said the killer was dressed in black with facial features covered.
Kaufman police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said there’s no indication that Hasse, 57, had been afraid he might be killed and, although the prosecutor was a licensed peace officer, officials refused to say whether he was carrying a weapon. 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, 33 miles southeast of Dallas.
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland 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.
More below the fold …
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As a licensed peace officer in Texas, Hasse could openly carry a firearm and make arrests. According to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, Hasse obtained his license in 1988 and kept it current through 1995. He then allowed it to lapse for 16 years before renewing it in July 2011.“If you saw Mark around the office or the courthouse, he generally had a pistol,” said Bill Wirskye, a Dallas attorney who recently served as a special prosecutor on a murder case in Kaufman County.
Texas district attorney Mike McLelland, wife found dead
(CNN) March 31, 2013 – The bodies of Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found Saturday in their home in Kaufman County, southeast of Dallas.
“I don’t know of anyone who would want to cause him harm,” Kaufman city Mayor William Fortney said. “As far as I could tell, he was doing a really good job as a district attorney.”
A law enforcement official told The Dallas Morning News that a door was apparently kicked in, and “there are shell casings everywhere.”
Authorities have not identified a suspect. Nor are they sure whether the deaths are related to the killing of county Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was killed on his way to work in January.
The county Sheriff’s Office brought in the FBI and the Texas Rangers to help with the investigation.
It has been reported that the Dallas and Denver offices of the FBI have been comparing the Hasse shooting to that of Tom Clements, executive director of Colorado prisons. He was shot and killed as he answered the front door of his home on March 19
The killing of Clements has been linked to Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, who died in a shootout with Texas deputies last week near Decatur, Texas. Colorado authorities said the same gun Ebel used in the shootout was the one used to kill Clements.
Kaufman Herald Online
Tribute to a wonderful man, a great American
Mike McLelland, Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney, was raised on a ranch in the small town of Wortham, Texas. As the only son in a ranching family, he learned to cowboy at an early age.
Mike graduated Wortham High School, attended Navarro Junior College on a football scholarship and finished undergraduate studies with a degree in History from the University of Texas at Austin. Following graduation, Mike was commissioned in the Regular Army of the United States as a Second Lieutenant. Mike’s career as a branch qualified Infantry Officer spanned twenty three years. He held positions both in the United States and overseas including Desert Storm and many training missions with U.S. allies. He carried Top Secret clearance for 15+ years.
