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Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy canceled a speaking event because of a security risk. An assistant U.S. attorney in Texas withdrew from a case involving white supremacists, and a city alderman in Wisconsin wants to carry a concealed firearm to meetings.
They are taking steps to avoid becoming the next target after a Texas district attorney and his assistant were shot to death, Colorado’s prison chief was gunned down and a West Virginia sheriff was killed while sitting in his car. Authorities say there’s no direct connection among the slayings, though investigators suspect white-supremacist groups in the Texas and Colorado incidents.
“It appears to be retribution, and in some cases well- organized and premeditated,” said Matthew Orwig, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, which includes the county where the prosecutor was killed. “Everyone still has to do their jobs, but at the same time, everyone needs to be more vigilant and be more aware.”
… Jay Hileman, an assistant U.S. attorney in Houston, withdrew from a case prosecuting 34 defendants of the Aryan Brotherhood after Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were found shot to death inside their home March 30. McLelland, and his assistant Mark Hasse, who was gunned down Jan.31, were part of the investigation into the white-supremacist prison gang.
Richard Ely, a Houston attorney representing one of the 34 defendants, said Hileman told him in an e-mail that he was withdrawing from the case for security reasons.
“He decided it needed to be done, and it was appropriate as far as I’m concerned,” Ely said by telephone.
Hileman didn’t respond to a phone call seeking comment.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the Texas killings. It’s too early to determine if any relationship exists among the shooting there, the killing of the West Virginia sheriff and the slaying of the Colorado prison chief, said Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman.
Bloomberg has the full article
