Investigation launched into killing of Texas district attorney

Authorities have launched a massive investigation into the weekend killings of a Texas district attorney and his wife, which occurred months after an assistant prosecutor was shot dead in the same county.

Kaufman County district attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were discovered with fatal gunshot wounds at their home near Forney, Texas, on Saturday.

Assistant district attorney Mark Hasse was gunned down in January.

Forney mayor Darren Rozell said the killings did not appear to be random.

"It was a targeted attack," Mr Rozell told CNN.

Kaufman county sheriff David Byrnes said yesterday that the FBI, Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials were investigating the double homicide.

The Kaufman County Sheriff's Office was notified shortly before 6pm on Saturday that the two bodies had been found in their rural home just outside Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas, Mr Byrnes said.

He would not discuss possible suspects in the case. But law enforcement officials are widely believed to have focused on a white supremacist group in the Hasse killing.

Mr Hasse was shot and killed on January 31, the same day the US Justice Department released a statement saying the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office was involved in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group.

In an indictment unsealed in November, the Texas arm of the Aryan Brotherhood was described as a gang responsible for murders, arson, assault and other crimes, and prone to "extreme violence and threats of violence to maintain internal discipline and retaliate against those believed to be cooperating with law enforcement."

Kaufman County judge Bruce Wood told Reuters the last known contact with the McLellands was about 7pm on Friday.

Wood described McLelland as a friend and colleague and said he and McLelland had spoken regularly about Hasse and the investigation.

"This is not just an attack on two very fine people, but an attack on the justice system," Mr Wood told Reuters.

I can't fathom someone doing this," Mr Wood said. "It is completely senseless, and completely out of the blue. Perhaps it is retaliation, but we won't know that until someone is caught."

Mr McLelland, a 23-year US army veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm, had five children, including a son who is an officer with the Dallas Police Department, according to a county website.

Authorities have made no arrests in Mr Hasse's killing and Mr McLelland had vowed to bring his killer to justice.

Last month, the Hasse case took a turn when the Kaufman police chief said the FBI was looking for any link between Mr Hasse's death and the March 19th shooting death of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements.

Evan Spencer Ebel (28) a Colorado prison parolee suspected of killing MrClements, died in a shootout with police in Decatur, Texas, on March 21st. Ebel was a member of a white supremacist prison gang called the 211 Crew and had a swastika tattoo, prison records indicate.

Mr Wood said investigators found no link between the shooting death of Mr Clements and the killing of Mr Hasse.

The Dallas Morning News said the Texas Department of Public Safety had issued a statewide bulletin in December warning that authorities had received "credible information" the Aryan Brotherhood was "actively planning retaliation against law enforcement officials" who helped secure indictments in Houston against dozens of members, including the gang's leadership.

More recently, the Department of Public Safety had identified brutal Mexican drug cartels as threats to law enforcement officials in Texas.

"The Mexican cartels are the most significant organized crime threat to Texas, with six of the eight cartels having command and control networks operating in the state," the department said in a February report.

Reuters