Colorado Prisons Director is Shot and Killed at His Home

The Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections was shot to death when he answered the front door of his home on Tuesday night.

Police officers, who launched a manhunt for the gunman on Wednesday, found Tom Clements dead at his home in Monument, north of Colorado Springs, after a frantic 911 call from a family member. He had been shot in the chest.

Mr. Clements, 58, was married with two daughters and was appointed to the post in 2011 after serving more than three decades in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Search dogs were brought in on Wednesday to comb the wooded area surrounding Mr. Clements’ home. Authorities said they do not have a suspect as yet, but do not believe the neighborhood is in danger.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who appointed Mr. Clements as Director, expressed his shock and disbelief in a statement to department employees early Wednesday.

He said: "As your executive director, he helped change and improve (the department) in two years more than most people could do in eight years. He was unfailingly kind and thoughtful, and sought the ‘good’ in any situation. I am so sad. I have never worked with a better person than Tom, and I can't imagine our team without him."

Mr. Clements was scheduled to appear as a keynote speaker at IDGA’s Prisons & Correctional Facilities West event in Denver, Colorado, in June. IDGA has sent its condolences to his family and close friends.

He was an advocate of effective offender rehabilitation and was a member of the Missouri Re-entry Process Steering Team.