BULLETIN: Prosecutor Shot Dead Outside Of Texas Courthouse

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 1:36 P.M. ET U.S.A.) A prosecutor has been shot dead in an ambush outside a courthouse in Kaufman County, Texas, multiple media outlets are reporting.

Two gunmen may be on the loose, and police are treating the shooting as an attack on the criminal-justice system, according to early reports.

The prosecutor, an assistant district attorney, was shot five times, and one of the assailants “may have been wearing a tactical jacket or vest,” MyFoxDFW is reporting. Separately, the Dallas Morning News is reporting that authorities with “knowledge of the assistant DA’s caseload say he had been heavily involved in the investigation of members of the Aryan Brotherhood” and that investigators are seeking to determine  if the shooting could be related to that investigation.

The FBI has described the Aryan Brotherhood as a “a violent white supremacist gang, formed within the California state prison system in the late 1960s.”

From CBS 11 in Dallas/Fort Worth (italics added):

Authorities believe that at least one person, possibly two, were involved in the shooting – both are still at large. State troopers have confirmed that an all points bulletin has been put out for two males, wearing all black clothing and some type of vests, possibly tactical. Chief Aulbaugh said, “We had some witnesses that saw an individual fleeing the area on foot and getting into a vehicle.” That vehicle is described as a possibly dark brown or silver-colored sedan, similar to a Ford Taurus, with no license plates.

In October 2012, federal prosecutors said a federal judge in Texas was targeted in a murder-for-hire plot by a purported “sovereign citizen.”