nbc's gabe gutierrez is live for must kauffman with more.xplain the security precautions that we are now seeing in place, obviously ramped up a little bit more than we were two months ago but how much tighter are they? >> reporter: well, thomas, good morning. officials are being very cautious in saying exactly what security measures they are taking. this morning, we saw a very visible police presence here at the kaufman county courthouse as workers came into the courthouse, they were escorted by police officers and other officials. and there seemed to be a very tense mood here. now the district attorney's office is closed to the public, even though the rest of the building is open. local officials contacted the governor's office, or plan to today, to ask the governor to pint a new district attorney, which he must do under state law. this shut 13th u.s. prosecutor to be murdered in the u.s. since the national association of district attorneys started keeping track back in the 1960s. as for the investigation, that is the big question now. loca

now elected officials in kauffman county texas are getting extra security. all of this after a couple were found murdered in their home this weekend. police have not found a suspect or motive but say the shooting does not appear random. >> it appears it was a targeted attack. it was the mcclellan family. the best thing we can do is remain calm. >> police are investing if those -- are investigating if those deaths are connected to the murder of the assistant d.a. attorney. >> a massive pileup on a virginia highway involving 95 cars leaving three people dead and 25 hurt. there were a total of 17 crashes within a within-mile stretch of interstate on interstate 27 caused by a heavy fog. drivers say it was so thick you could barely see a few feet in front of you. at the center of the map a couple of trucks collided. they caught fire and started a terrifying reaction. >> all you could hear was bam, bam, bam. and all you could hear was explosions. >> we could hear the continual wrecking behind us. just screeching and metal, just a lot of banging. >> three people ki

a former justice of the peace in kauffman county. convicted of stealing computer monitors from the courthouse. this is surveillance video from the courthouse of williams that was used during his criminal trial. murder victims like mclelland and hasse. kxas did an interview with williams tuesday, three days after he allowed police investigating the murders to test him for gun residue. >> i've cooped with law enforcement. i certainly wish them the best in bringing justice for this -- just incredibly egregious act. >> reporter: iraq williams lives in this house a mile away from the courthouse where the prosecutors worked. authorities say they are not describing him as a suspect, not describing him as a person of interest. but one law enforcement official briefed on the progress of the investigation says he is an angle they are looking at. williams' lawyer told me over the phone his client is innocent, that he's a diabetic who cannot even walk very well now. authorities do say he passed some tests looking for the gun residue. for now, th

i know kauffman county.rprising coincidence that kauffman would have ended up there. >> cenk: mark, is this weird phenomenon. i know white supremacist groups have increased during the obama administration. we can talk about that as well. but they're not a very large percentage of the population, but they're a huge percentage of the prison population. what is going on there? what is it that the rest of us in society don't understand why they're so big in prison. >> what happened is in the early 1960s officials around the country began for the first time really began to desegregate prisons. that led to a fair amount of interracial violence which in turn led to the creation of the first racially based prison gangs. the first one in the country was the aryan brotherhood which was started in san quinton in 1964. the populations of the prisons are pretty much mixed up and most inmates, a large number of them who are serving any amount of time at all have organized themselves in a race-based gangs primarily as a wa

this point they say they cannot link this to the investigation of the murders of two prosecutors in kauffman county, texas. they held a news conference a minute ago and we put the dvr on pause, here it is. >> lieutenant lewis with the sheriff's office in kauffman county. the press conference is to confirm a question a lot of you have asked today, we confirm the arrest of nate morel of terrell, texas. he was arrested yesterday and charged with one charge of terrorist threats. following his arrestees held in jail on $1 million bond. morale. >> nick. >> during the course of the investigation into the murder of mike and cynthia mclelland, a threat against the safety of a county official was received. it was investigated leading to the rest of mr. morel at a location in kaufman county. specific details of this investigation and arrest will not be discussed at this time. we're providing awe you a copy of the arrest warrant affidavit. that copy has had personal identifying information redacted out of it. at this time there is nothing to link mr. morel to the murders of mike and cynthia mclelland or

in recent weeks kauffman county district corner and his top assistant were murdered in shootings that have left investigators hunting for clues. cops are poring over hundreds of old cases that mcclellan prosecuted and following the clues that not involved not just the aryan brotherhood of texas, but mexican drug cartels, and other violent individuals. but they are aggressively pursuing a possible aryan brotherhood link sources said. well, it was nice of abc to give so much weight and credibility to their sources. they obviously did not have any clue whatsoever of what they were talking about because just back reported by people at the time, they were concerned about the justice of the peace, former justice of the peace, possible involvement. but just as the southern poverty bigoted began its approach toward group like family research council and all those who happen to hold religious beliefs, affirmed in the bible, constantly referred to in this chamber and the chamber down the hall where nondenominational christian worship services were held through most of the 1800's, where presiden

. >>> on saturday, kauffman county district attorney mike mcclellan and his wife cynthia were found shotide their home. two months ago a deputy district attorney was also found dead. one is said to be a county official who had made a number of threats. >>> a national rifle association task force is offering itself own recommendation to protect young children. one includes training and arming at least one school staff member in every school. >> i hope this doesn't you know lead to name calling, but rather this is recommendations for solutions. >> reporter: the nra sponsored report also calls for background checks for school employees who would carry weapons. but the group opposes background checks for the buying public. >>> the aclu has proponents and opponents here in the bay area. >> you will come out, you rock it. push it straight out. rock your head and bang. >> reporter: coleman a former police officer and sheriff deputy runs cert. a san jose center to train people to move into security jobs. coleman has been preparing for the school shield's program prepared today which includes arm

. >>> on saturday, kauffman county district attorney mike mcclellan and his wife cynthia were found shotide their home. two months ago a deputy district attorney was also found dead. one is said to be a county official who had made a number of threats. >>> a national rifle association task force is offering itself own recommendation to protect young children. one includes training and arming at least one school staff member in every school. >> i hope this doesn't you know lead to name calling, but rather this is recommendations for solutions. >> reporter: the nra sponsored report also calls for background checks for school employees who would carry weapons. but the group opposes background checks for the buying public. >>> the aclu has proponents and opponents here in the bay area. >> you will come out, you rock it. push it straight out. rock your head and bang. >> reporter: coleman a former police officer and sheriff deputy runs cert. a san jose center to train people to move into security jobs. coleman has been preparing for the school shield's program prepared today which includes arm

in kauffman county texas mike mcclellan and wife cynthia were found shot to death in their home on saturday. authorities say the two cases do not appear to be random and to say that law enforcement in texas is on edge would be a real understatement. >> we're very much on alert. we obviously have folks that are out to do harm to elected officials so we take that very seriously. >> suspicion has turned to a white supremecist group active in texas prisons. amber lee has the story. >> reporter: the alameda county district attorney says there are now security measures here in the courthouse in response to the killing of the d.a. and his wife in texas. nancy o'malley has been a prosecutor for 27 years. she says they are several time -- times that authorities are on high alert. o'malley's supervisor 65 deputy d.a.s and they are on high alert. >> we have had threats sent to them. >> reporter: cases involving gang members are among the most dangerous. hammer says he an his prosecution team received threats while trying to fatal dog mauling of diane wiffel. robert noel had ties to a pelican bay inmat

. >> funeral services were held yesterday in texas for kauffman county district attorney mike mclelland and his wife, cynthia. the couple was shot to death in their home last week two months after the unsolved shooting death of assistant kauffman county district attorney, mark has i is at this point it looks like white supremacist group pushing the aryan brotherhood of texas, could be behind the crimes. those killings echo another apparent hate crime, the murder of colorado's department of corrections chief tom clements killed by white supremacist grourng the 211 crew. we turn now to senior fellow at the southern poverty law center around expert on extremism and hate groups, mark poe to be. what do we know about how linked the crimes are in text and colorado? >> similar, might have been carried out by white supremacist prison gangs, much stronger for that in colorado than in texas. the interesting thing, the killer of tom clements, the head of the colorado department of corrections, turns out to be a man named evan ebalance. two days after the shooting, he fled to north texas, got into

in kauffman county texas mike mcclellan and wife cynthia were found shot to death in their home on saturday. authorities say the two cases do not appear to be random and to say that law enforcement in texas is on edge would be a real understatement. >> we're very much on alert. we obviously have folks that are out to do harm to elected officials so we take that very seriously. >> suspicion has turned to a white supremecist group active in texas prisons. amber lee has the story. >> reporter: the alameda county district attorney says there are now security measures here in the courthouse in response to the killing of the d.a. and his wife in texas. nancy o'malley has been a prosecutor for 27 years. she says they are several time -- times that authorities are on high alert. o'malley's supervisor 65 deputy d.a.s and they are on high alert. >> we have had threats sent to them. >> reporter: cases involving gang members are among the most dangerous. hammer says he an his prosecution team received threats while trying to fatal dog mauling of diane wiffel. robert noel had ties to a pelican bay inmat

>> i was in kauffman county covering the d.a. death there and the arrest of the justice of the peace and his wife in connection with that case, and i was inside a building about, oh, five minutes till 8:00 central time. and there was a rumble in the glass of the building. everyone went, well, is that a thunderstorm? is that high wind? we're expecting thunderstorms later tonight. but when i walked outside, there were no storms around and the wind was calm and i just kind of thought i wonder what that was. about 20 minutes later the phones started ringing and we'll realized immediately what it was. >> as you've driven through down, have you seen any signs of damage? >> not really. of course it's dark here so it's hard to see what's on the buildings and what glass may or may not be in windows. we heard earlier from a local reporter that there was sheet metal strewn around town. that would not be uncommon. a big huge tank of anhydrous ammonia blowing up is going to send shrapnel perhaps miles away from the scene. >> you mentioned a n

such a rare event and to have two random acts of violence on prosecutors in a community as small as kauffman, texas. i don't know how to square that so i don't know how we can turn a blind eye as to whether these two are linked and tied to the same case. we'll see how it goes, but i don't know how you cannot finds that link. >> if you look at the kinds of cases they prosecuted in leading you to possible suspects here, people who might have a motive for revenge. >> that's the first place to look is what cases have been prosecuted in the last year, two years to see if you can find that link. you know, what we do, suzanne, in the criminal law field, we're exposing raw nerves every stay in our courtrooms and this is as high powered as it gets with respect to the emotion that's going on inside of a courtroom, both from a prosecutor's side and from the criminal defense attorney's size. that's where we need to look to find this because that's probably where this link is going to be. >> you arrested a guy who a lot of people didn't like, timothy mcveigh, did you ever feel like there was a need for s

. >> joining me from kauffman, texas is gabe gutierrez.k more about what the governor had to say there, the possibility of this being linked to something larger, like the cartel or other leads to white supremacy groups in the area. >> good morning. there a lot of theories floating around out there. we heard the local sheriff is planning a news conference for this afternoon, his first since sunday. we've seen county employees streaming into the courthouse all morning. no word yet if the interim d.a., brandy fernandez, has reported for work. this all comes as public employees throughout the state of texas including houston and dallas are on high alert. the investigation into the death of mike mclelland and his wife is staying very quiet. they're analyzing shell casings at the scene and looking at cell phone records. although they have not officially linked the murders, there are several theories floating around out there, specifically and most significantly the aryan brotherhood of texas. the group has been involved in meth dealings in kaufm

plans of some kind of retaliation from abt, and a month after that, that mark hasse, a prosecutor in kauffman county, was murdered. this was a real execution. the man got out of his car. he was sat upon by two people who were apparently wearing bulletproof vests who were thought to have been wearing masks who shot him. then apparently either collected their shell casings or had shell casing catchers. but, in fact, left no evidence. they took off in a car. that car was stolen, and they disappeared. now, of course, almost exactly two months later, mike and cynthia mclelland were murdered and it looks, you know, mclelland also was involved in prosecutions and had said some pretty tough things in his press conference. >> now, investigators are also pursuing links with colorado state prison chief, shot and killed at his home on march the 19th. what kind of connection do you think there might be with his death? >> well, of course, we don't know. what we do know, for sure, is that a man named evan eeble, a member of a white supremacist prison gang in colorado, something called the 211 crew, was the

. >> yeah, i'm matthew kauffman with the hartford courant. can you give us a sense of how active you intend to be? do you anticipate a point at which sandy hook promise would actually be testifying, lobbying, if you will? >> we have to take the time to educate ourselves. we have to take the time to have that dialogue. but absolutely, there's going to become a moment in time where we're going to take those positions. we're a platform for people to come together with one voice and actions to move us forward. >> some of us who came together to start sandy hook promise are gun owners. we hunt, we target shoot, we protect our homes, we're collectors, we teach our sons and daughters how to use guns safely. passing a new law and then moving on is not the answer. we have to fundamentally change our approach. (gunshot) >> so that's... that's pretty dead center. >> pretty dead center. >> a lot of people were surprised at how many guns nancy lanza owned and the type of guns that they were. but in fact there's a strong gun culture in newtown. a lot of hu

. >>> a massive manhunt in texas for the kill here gunned down the kauffman county district attorney and his wife. mike and cynthia mcclelland were found dead in their home on saturday two months aft of his assistant prosecutors are also murdered. police are already checking on a link between that killing and the death to of a colorado prison chief and threats from a white supremacist group. so far, they say there is no solid connection. i've always had to keep my eye on her... but, i didn't always watch out for myself. with so much noise about health care... i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile. not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >>> the united states is flexing its military might as tensions escalate with north korea. f-22 stealth fighter jets have been deployed to take part in the annu

. >> new developments this morning in the murder of two district attorney's in kauffman, texas.d for corruption and prosecuted by the two dead men. eric williams says police met with him at a local restaurant and swabbed his hands for signs of gun residue but williams insists he doesn't even own a gun and police are not officially calling him a suspect. >>> meantime new developments in another deadly shooting involving a prosecutor in colorado. police in the small town of hot sulfur springs, colorado, say a -- cnn's jim spellman live in denver for us this morning. what's the latest? >> the man shot and killed, josh swa stevens in his early 30s. he only moved to hot sulphur springs about a week ago looking for work. monday night just before midnight, apparently, he showed up at the door of this deputy district attorney, and her sheriff deputy husband, showed up there with some sort of altercation at their door, not exactly clear what happened. and then one of these two people, either the deputy d.a. or her husband, shot and killed this man. he was shot in the head. and in the tor

our george howell is there live from kauffman, texas, with this developing story. what's the latest? >> john, good morning. no new leads in this mysterious murder case. investigators are not any closer to narrowing down a suspect in this case. but we are, john, hearing from several public officials here and they say this, they believe that these two men worked very closely together on different cases and they believe this may have been a revenge hit. now at this point, please here are not officially linking these killings, but the unanswered questions have consumed this community with fear. >> we're going to find you. we're going to pull you out of whatever hole you're in, we're going to bring you back and let the people of kaufman county prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. >> reporter: a promise from kaufman county, texas, district attorney mike mclelland two months ago to the unknown killer of an assistant d.a. in his office. a promise, though, he would never see fulfilled. saturday night police found the bodies of the d.a. and his wife cynthia at the

>> when i talked to chief deputy kauffman from mclennan county s.o., he described the devastation asediately around the area as devastating. he said homes were leveled. he said it just kind of depended on where you were. now, he didn't give me specifics but he said in a general close proximity to the fertilizer plant that homes had, in fact, been leveled. others suffered structural damage, windows blown out, roofs caved in on the inside of homes. that's part of the process they're going to have to continue. they're going to have to go into each and every individual home and clear each and every individual home to make sure there are no casualties or people trapped or injured. >> any idea what the casualty numbers are? >> no, sir, i don't have that. sir? >> you mentioned house-to-house search. have you found any survivors? >> i don't know that. i know they were going from home to home. obviously, i'm trying not to bother those folks on the ground. they have a lot on their plate at this point. i don't -- i don't know specifics on rescues that they've actually done. ma'am? i'll get righ

i was in kauffman, county, 60 miles away and we could feel it there. the concussion rattled the windows. we thought it was the approaching storms but it turned out it was much worse than that. it was an explosion that killed several people here in town and perhaps dozens more. mika? >> willie? >> willie geist here. is there any suspension whatsoever of criminal element to this at all? i think the officer who just spoke at the press conference defected that a little bit and hadn't seen any sign of that. is there any suspicion or are they looking into that? >> the officers said they want to treat it as a crime scene until they can rule it out it it wasn't a crime and it was, indeed an industrial accident. in fact, texas has a long history of industrial accidents involving anhydrous ammonia dating 66 years ago on april 16th, 1947, thousands of people were killed in texas city which a ship carrying the same type of fertilizer that blew up here exploded on a ship. the ship started fire. people started coming down to the docks to see what was burning. the sh