COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Nearly a week after the chief of Colorado's prisons was fatally shot at his front door, investigators have matched the gun in his slaying to one used by the prime suspect in a shootout with Texas authorities.
The weapon match was a small part of a puzzle that authorities in two states are trying to piece together after suspect Evan Ebel was killed in Texas. They have yet to determine who shot corrections chief Tom Clements or why he was killed.
And until investigators determine whether Ebel, who was recently paroled from Colorado's prison system, acted alone, "it's hard to know what his role was," Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office told The Associated Press.
"He remains a suspect in our investigation, obviously, especially after receiving this confirmed link from Texas," he said. No other suspects have been named.
As investigators in Colorado and Texas worked to find more links, if any, Clements' family and friends mourned a man who had been admired by prison advocates and guards alike.
"My life was changed forever," his wife, Lisa Clements, told hundreds of people who gathered at a memorial service Monday.
During the service at New Life Church, she and Gov. John Hickenlooper spoke about Clements' strong belief in redemption. His family said he decided as a teenager to work in corrections after visiting his uncle in prison, and he worked to reduce the use of solitary confinement in Colorado prisons.
Standing with her two daughters, Lisa Clements, a psychologist who oversees Colorado's state mental health institutes, said her husband of 28 years would want justice as well as forgiveness.
"We want everyone who hears Tom's story to know that he lived his life believing in redemption, in the ability of the human heart to be changed. He would want justice certainly but moreover he'd want forgiveness. Our family prays for the family of the man who took Tom's life and we will pray for forgiveness in our own hearts and our own peace," she said.