Another prosecutor killed

A wave of fear spread through Kaufman County, Texas, this week after District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were assassinated at their home, just two months after his deputy was shot in an execution-style killing outside the courthouse. Investigators are examining several possible suspects, including a disgruntled former public official who made threats after losing his job due to a corruption prosecution, and the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white-supremacist gang recently targeted by Kaufman County prosecutors.

McLelland recently began carrying a gun, and vowed to bring the “scum” who killed his deputy, Mark Hasse, to justice, telling a friend, “They better come prepared because there’ll be a fight.” But he and his wife were found dead after they opened their door to someone who rapidly fired five or six shots from a .223-caliber rifle. “This whole thing is shocking to all of us,” said Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood. “I would be less than honest if I told you I was not worried.”

The Aryan Brotherhood certainly had motive here, said Kevin Krause in SeattleTimes.com. McLelland and Hasse helped “deal a serious blow” to the prison gang last October, assisting with federal indictments against 34 members, including “four top bosses.” Law-enforcement officials recently warned that the Brotherhood “could be planning retaliation.” The gang has a track record of gruesome violence, said Christine Pelisek in TheDailyBeast.com, but assassinations of public officials go against its “normal policy.” Having moved in recent years into organized-crime activities, such as drug dealing and prostitution, the Aryan Brotherhood must know that targeting officials would “bring heat down” on its businesses. It’s more likely that the killer was a lone wolf acting on some personal vendetta.

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Regardless of who’s responsible, said Scott K. Parks in DallasNews.com, these killings mark an alarming trend. Over the last century, just 14 prosecutors have been murdered. Now, including a Colorado state prisons chief gunned down two weeks ago, three have been killed in a matter of months. Are we “entering a new era of organized crime and terrorism?”