Texas Chase, Crash & Shootout Tied to Tom Clements’ Murder in Colorado

A high-speed chase, fiery crash and shootout in Texas may be tied to the murder of the head of Colorado’s department of corrections.

A man driving a black Cadillac with Colorado plates — matching the description of a vehicle sought in the wake of Tom Clement’s murder at his home yesterday — today led cops in Texas on a wild chase with guns blazing, ending in a shootout.

The Denver Post reports that the car’s driver — a white male in his 30s — was wounded and is “considered brain dead.”

The Wise County Messenger reports:

The chase began at the intersection of U.S. 287 and and Highway 59 in Bowie. Montague County Sheriff Deputy James Boyd stopped the suspect, who was driving a black Cadillac with Colorado plates, on a routine traffic stop. During the stop, the suspect opened fire on the deputy, hitting him twice in the chest and once in the head.

The deputy is in stable condition.

The suspect then led a chase with speeds up to 100 mph, continuing from Montague County into Wise County, shooting out the window at the string of patrol cars pursuing him, reports the Messenger:

Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins said he was shot at four times while waiting for the suspect to enter Decatur. … Hoskins said while in Decatur the suspect stuck his arm out of his moving vehicle and used some kind of automatic or semi-automatic weapon, firing approximately 20 to 30 rounds during his rampage. Wise County Sheriff’s Patrol Lt. Art Ferguson also had shots fired at him. Bullets punctured his front window, with bullets narrowly missing his head. Shards of glass scratched his face.

The Cadillac turned off U.S. 287 onto U.S. 380, still at high speed, and eventually crashed into an 18-wheeler hauling rocks. The suspect jumped from the vehicle, opened fire and was gunned down by cops. The shooter remains unidentified but is now a focus of the investigation into Clements’ murder.

Meanwhile, investigators in the Clements case are probing a possible connection with Homaidan Al-Turki, an imprisoned Saudi national who was denied transfer to his homeland by Clements.