EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. — Authorities are questioning two associates of the man suspected in the killing of the state prisons director, a law enforcement source close to the investigation said Thursday.
The two men, whom the source declined to identify, are in addition to James Lohr, 47, and Thomas Guolee, 31, two men the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office asked police to be on the lookout for on Wednesday. One or both could be headed toward Nevada, the office said.
Police want to question Lohr and Guolee — whom police described as associates of the white supremacist 211 Crew gang — in relation to the death of state prisons chief Tom Clements. The man suspected of killing Clements, Evan Ebel, also had been a 211 Crew member. He died in a shootout with Texas deputies.
The other two men, brought in for questioning in recent days by El Paso County authorities, are also 211 Crew members, the source said. Both associated with Ebel in the days before Clements’ death, the source said, and at least one is a parolee.
Authorities have also served a search warrant related to one of them, the source said. The source declined to say what the warrant named.
Lohr is described as 6 feet tall and weighing 160 pounds, with blond hair, brown eyes and several tattoos.
Guolee is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes and several tattoos.
Both men are wanted on warrants unrelated to the Clements case.
“They are both known associates of the 211 Crew,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Kramer. “They are believed to be armed and dangerous.”
Clements was widely recognized for cracking down on prison gangs, including the 211 Crew. He is thought to have been shot at his home by gang member Evan Ebel, who was out of prison on parole.
Investigators have said they were looking into whether Ebel might have conspired with other inmates to kill Clements.
Before shooting Clements, Ebel may have killed part-time pizza deliveryman Nathan Leon.
Authorities have speculated Ebel might have killed Leon for his uniform so he could use it as a disguise in the killing of Clements, who was gunned down on March 19 after he opened his front door.
Due to a clerical error, Ebel was released early on parole, which he later violated.
He had been sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005 for armed robbery. In 2008, he was sentenced to another four years — to be served consecutively — for punching a prison guard.
Two days after killing Clements, Ebel died in northern Texas in a gun battle with authorities that left a sheriff’s deputy wounded.
Kramer said Lohr and Guolee may also pose a threat to the safety of officers who encounter them.
Police have little to go on in order to track them.
“We don’t have vehicle information,” Kramer said. “We don’t have a concerted search out looking for them. We don’t know their whereabouts.”
Kramer declined to say whether the pair knew Ebel.
Ebel’s actions came as a surprise
People who lived near his home called Evan Ebel an ideal neighbor.
“He kept quiet and kept mostly to himself,” one man said.
It’s something, as they announced an internal audit, even the Department of Corrections acknowledged.
“There had been no indications that Evan Ebel was non-compliant up until the middle of March,” said Director of Parole Supervision Tom Hand.
The state of Colorado has now ordered an audit of all of their cases to make sure there are no other clerical errors allowing inmates to be released early. They also want to know why it took five days to issue an arrest warrant for Evan Ebel.
“Our initial poll this morning is for about 255 orders that we need to go through,” said Department of Corrections spokesperson Alison Morgan. “In retrospective we’re all talking about a situation and what we could have done differently. I`ve mulled that over in my mind the last couple of weeks.“
CNN contributed to this report