Mark Hasse (AP)
ALL DEAD: DA Mike McLelland was shot dead with wife Cynthia (above) two months after ADA Mark Hasse’s murder.
ALL DEAD: DA Mike McLelland (right) was shot dead with wife Cynthia (center) two months after ADA Mark Hasse’s (left) murder. (
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Officials are investigating a link to the white-supremacist Aryan Brotherhood in Saturday’s murder of a Texas DA and his wife, who were killed just months after his deputy was murdered while investigating the hate group.
The murders have gripped rural Kaufman County with fear, and a massive manhunt was under way for what local authorities believe is the two prosecutors’ common killer.
“In my view, it appears that it was not random,” Forney Mayor Darren Rozell said. “It was a targeted attack.”
The bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were discovered after a report of a shooting at their home about 35 miles outside of Dallas.
The door appeared to have been kicked in, the Dallas Morning News said, and the killer is believed to have used an assault rifle.
DA McLelland was shot multiple times, his wife once.
The gruesome discovery came two months after McLelland’s assistant prosecutor was assassinated amid an investigation of the Aryan Brotherhood.
Assistant DA Mark Hasse, 57, was gunned down Jan. 31 as he walked from the courthouse to his car.
After his slaying, his boss, McLelland, vowed to hunt down the killers.
“I hope that the people that did this are watching, because we’re very confident that we’re going to find you,” McLelland said.
McLelland also speculated on whether the Aryan Brotherhood was behind his deputy’s murder.
“We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year,” he said.
The three murders over such a short time span have unnerved the Texas town.
“Everyone is a little on edge and shocked,” Mayor Rozell said.
Sheriff David Byrnes, in fact, said his office is considering that there might be more attacks on elected officials to come.
Kaufman County Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said recently that the FBI was looking into whether the Hasse murder was related to the March 19 slaying of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements, who, like the McLellands, was shot and killed at his home.
The primary suspect in that case, Evan Spencer Ebel, was killed in a shootout with Texas deputies two days later.
McLelland, had served 23 years as an infantry officer in the US Army before attending law school and launching his legal career.
In an interview recently, the district attorney had said he told all his employees to remain on alert.
“I’m ahead of everybody else because, basically, I’m a soldier,” he said.
He also noted that he carried a gun wherever he went, even when he walked his dog.
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