A former Texas official jailed on charges of making a terroristic threat is a "prime suspect" in the slaying of two Kaufman County prosecutors, one of his family members told NBCDFW.com.

Lm Otero / AP

The family of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, comfort each other during their funeral services in Wortham, Texas, on April 5.

Eric Williams, 46, who is being held on $3 million bond, lost his job as Kaufman County justice of the peace last year after he was convicted of felony theft for taking computer monitors from a public building. Assistant district attorney Mark Hasse, who was the first of the local authorities slain, prosecuted that case, Reuters reported.

Hasse, 57, was gunned down in daylight Jan. 31 in the Kaufman town square, near the county courthouse. Three months later, the county’s district attorney, Mike McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were shot to death at their home in Forney, Texas. McLelland, who had publicly vowed to find Hasse’s killer, was fired at 20 times and his wife once, according to a federal source.

The three killings rocked the small town and caused concern among prosecutors in the region. Theories about motives behind the killings have included retaliation by white supremacist groups and Mexican drug cartels, federal prosecutors said.

Kaufman County Sheriff via AP

Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was shot and killed Jan. 31 as he left work in Kaufman, Texas.

Attention turned to Williams after his arrest early Saturday.

Williams had told NBCDFW.com that he had no role in the death of Hasse and that he had nothing to hide.

More news from NBCDFW.com

A former police officer, Williams said he was contacted by investigators just hours after McLelland and his wife were found dead.

“I’ve cooperated with law enforcement,” Williams said. “I certainly wish them the best in bringing justice to this incredibly egregious act.”

Williams said he met with the agents at a restaurant, where they conducted a test for gunpowder residue on his hands. He also turned over his cellphone along with his wife’s, Williams said. The investigators gave the phones back to him on Sunday.

“I know I didn’t do anything,” Williams said. “I know where I was.”

On Sunday, Kaufman County Sheriff's Department Lt. Justin Lewis told NBCDFW.com:

"Mr. Williams has not been charged with any murder (no one has been charged for the murders) and we have not named any suspects, prime suspects, or persons of interest in the case. The investigation continues and all leads and tips continue to be worked.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Police have taken a man into custody who was in possession of a BB gun while watching President Barack Obama's motorcade depart the University of Hartford on Monday.

According to police, the man was standing near the intersection of Charter Avenue and Cottage Grove Road in Bloomfield, Conn., while Obama's motorcade passed.

Officers said they noticed the man acting suspiciously and pacing back and forth before he pulled out what appeared to be rifle.

The man was aggressively taken into custody, and it was learned that what had appeared to be a rifle was actually a BB gun.

More news from NBCConnecticut.com

The man has been charged. The exact charges and the suspect's name were not immediately available.

The man will be in court on Tuesday.

Glynn County Police Dept.

Brunswick City Commissioner James Henry Brooks, 59, was arrested on Thursday.

The commissioner of a town where a baby was shot to death was arrested Thursday, the sixth arrest since the small Georgia community was shaken by last week's attack.

Brunswick, Ga., city commissioner James Henry Brooks was charged with influencing a witness and willful obstruction of law enforcement officers in the investigation into 13-month-old Antonio Santiago's death, Glynn County Undersheriff Ron Corbett said.

Brooks, 59, was still in jail Friday because no bond had been set for the charge of influencing a witness, Corbett said. A bond of $1,256 was set on the other charge.

Antonio's mother, Sherry West, says she was on her morning walk last Friday when two teens came up to her and demanded money. When she told them she didn't have any cash, she says, the older teen shot Antonio in the head and her in the leg. Her injury was not life-threatening.

Brooks' charges stem from a Monday courthouse incident in which he allegedly tried to block a county investigator from speaking with the mother of De'Marquis Elkins, one of the suspects in the case, reported NBC affiliate WTLV.com. 

Brooks was also indicted on unrelated racketeering charges in neighboring Camden County earlier Thursday, The Florida Times-Union reported. He was charged with taking money and influencing others in the local government from 2009 to 2011, the paper reported.

 Corbett, the Glynn County undersheriff, confirmed Brooks was indicted, but couldn't confirm the details.

Authorities investigating baby Antonio's death arrested suspects Elkins, 17, and Dominique Lang, 15, last Friday. Over the course of this week, they also arrested Elkins' mother, aunt, and sister for tampering with evidence.

Elkins' sister, Sabrina, 19, and mother, Karimah, 36, are still in custody, without the possibility of bond. 

A handgun was discovered about two miles away from the crime scene, submerged a marsh, the Brunswick police spokesman said yesterday. On Friday, Corbett said that Elkins' mother, Karimah, who is still in custody, faces a second charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, but said he couldn't elaborate on the charge.

The only eyewitness to the shooting was Antonio's mother. West said when she insisted she didn't have any money on her, the older of the two teens pointed a handgun at her. 

"He says, 'Well, I'm gonna kill your baby,'" West said last week. "I put my arms over my baby and he shoves me. And then he shot my baby right in the head."

Both teens have been charged as adults.

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• Relative, lawyer defend Ga. teen baby-shooting suspects

The former top Navy SEAL sniper who authorities say was killed at a Texas shooting range was devoted to maintaining camaraderie and helping his fellow veterans find their way after leaving active duty. 

Chris Kyle, author of the best-selling book "American Sniper," and his friend Chad Littlefield apparently were doing just that Saturday when, officials say, they were shot and killed by former Marine Eddie Ray Routh. 

Kyle, 38, had left the Navy in 2009 after four tours of duty in Iraq, where he earned a reputation as one of the military's most lethal snipers. But he quickly found a way to maintain contact with his fellow veterans and pass on what had helped him work through his own struggles. By late 2011, he filed the paperwork to establish the nonprofit FITCO Cares, which received its nonprofit status the following spring, said FITCO director Travis Cox. 

"Chris struggled with some things," Cox said. "He'd been through a lot and he handled it with grace, but yeah he did struggle with some things. And he found a healthy outlet and was proactive in his approach to deal with those issues and wanted to help spread his healing, what worked for him, to others. And that's what he died doing." 

For Kyle that healthy outlet was exercise. At the heart of FITCO was giving in-home fitness equipment to physically and emotionally wounded veterans, as well as families who had lost a veteran, Cox said. 

Littlefield, a 35-year-old friend and neighbor, was Kyle's "workout buddy," and also volunteered his time to work with veterans, Cox said. He was married and had children as well. 

"He's a very gentle, sweet-hearted man, just a great man, kind of quiet," Cox said of Littlefield. "He just really cared. ... He wanted to do whatever he could to help veterans and help see that vision of serving others that Chris had. He shared that vision with all of us. He was a great man." 

Cox said he understood that Kyle and Littlefield were helping Routh work through his own PTSD, but that he did not know how they came into contact. He said it was not a FITCO session. 

Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant on Sunday offered a similar description of the situation. 

"It's my understanding that the suspect may have been suffering from some type of mental illness from being in the military himself," he said of Routh. 

He said Routh's mother may have reached out to Kyle for help with her son. 

"We kind of have an idea that maybe that's why they were at the range for some type of therapy that Mr. Kyle assists people with," Bryant said. 

Bryant didn't know whether Routh was on any medication or whether he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Authorities say the three men arrived at the Rough Creek Lodge southwest of Fort Worth around 3:15 p.m. Saturday. A hunting guide discovered the bodies of Kyle and Littlefield around 5 p.m. and called 911. 

Routh allegedly left in Kyle's pickup and went to his sister's in Midlothian. He told what he had done and left. She called police and Routh was eventually found at his home in Lancaster. After a short pursuit he was arrested. 

Routh was being held on $3 million bail in the Erath County Jail. Authorities said they believed he had requested a court-appointed attorney. Calls to his home were not answered Sunday. 

Kyle was also president of a security training firm Craft International. Craft had scheduled a $2,950-per-person civilian training event at Rough Creek Lodge called the "Rough Creek Shoot Out!" for March 1-3. The price included lodging, meals and shooting instruction. Kyle was scheduled to teach the first class, called "precision rifle." 

But the work with veterans through FITCO was Kyle's passion, Cox said. 

FITCO Cares offered life coaching for veterans, a daily support group and weekly group counseling. Sometimes veterans in other states would video conference in to counseling sessions, Cox said. 

Kyle was always recognized at events, but would deflect attention to other veterans, quickly introducing and praising those around him. 

"That camaraderie is usually missed once the veteran gets out of the military," said Cox, himself a former Marine sniper. "The authentic relationships that you develop in the military, especially overseas and in combat are some of the most meaningful, authentic relationships that one can have and it's missed. And so we tried to create a means through this group of veterans that can gather and talk about things that they're dealing with." 

"He (Kyle) didn't have any fear at all as far as working with an extreme case," Cox said. "Just like in combat he would take it on head on and do whatever he could to give these guys assistance. There was no fear in helping anyone that may have an extreme case. He was willing to help anyone in need." 

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Robert Dale Esparza Jr.

When he finally confessed to creating a fake porn profile for his son's assistant principal, Robert Dale Esparza Jr. of Gilbert, Arizona, "sort of laughed," said Dennis Ogorchock, a detective with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Computer Crimes Unit. But soon, Esparza may be laughing from a jail cell.

Last year, Esparza created the profile of Frank Hendricsen, assistant principal of Gateway Pointe Elementary School, where his son attended, using the faculty member's full name and photos as a revenge prank, the detective told msnbc.com in a phone interview.  

Esparza, 34, believed his son's story — that Hendricsen confiscated the boy's iPod and wouldn't give it back, so the father lashed out on the Internet. Sure, he was angry when he first built the profile, but Ogorchock says Esparza "thought (the porn profile) was going to be funny and everyone would get a kick out of it."

When first confronted by the officer, Esparza even tried to claim his son made the porn profile. Given the sophisticated sexual content however — 13-year-old kids don't talk about "swingers" — not to mention the complete lack of grammatical errors, the detective wasn't buying it.

Now, a year after the May 2011 investigation into the fake porn profile and a recent week-long trial, a jury convicted Esparza of computer fraud and identity theft, two felonies for which he may face jail time when he's sentenced June 5. (Msnbc.com has been unable to reach Esparza or Hendricsen for comment.)

"The victim is pretty shaken up about the whole ordeal," Ogorchock said. "His reputation, everything he had worked for his whole career was on the line." The detective said Hendricsen learned about the fake profile on porn website xHamster from a prospective employer who Googled Hendricsen's name after a job interview for a principal position at another school. That's when Hendricsen contacted the sheriff's department.

The profile Esparza posted on xHamster — a video-sharing and online community porn hub — included Hendricsen's full name, photos of both the assistant principal and his wife scraped, or copied, from the Gateway Pointe Elementary School website, and described the couple as "swingers" looking to play.

For further humiliation, Esparza included four photos of male genitals (scraped from Craiglist personal ads, but identified as Hendricsen's), and more than a dozen "favorited" videos on the porn hub, all deliberately chosen by Esparza for their naughty school girl themes. 

And to ensure the incriminating content would be among the first results for anyone who Googled Hendricsen's name, Esparza accessed the profile at least 25 times, Ogorchock said, communicating with other xHamster members and using the profile in the casual encounters section of Craigslist.

The reputation bomb worked so well, the detective quickly tracked down Esparza via the IP address provided by the happy-to-help xHamster webmasters, who also removed the fake profile after Hendricsen contacted the site.

The Internet trail led to a computer which belonged to Esparza's employer — Safeguard, a locally owned, home-security company (where, the Arizona Republic reports, Esparza no longer works). Ogorchock connected Esparza to Hendricsen via the police report the angry father filed against the assistant principal for allegedly taking his son's iPod, an accusation that was never proven.

That led to a warrant and search on Esparza's work laptop, which revealed visits to xHamster, Craigslist, the school website where he scraped the photos, and the Google Gmail account he created using Hendricsen's name. Despite the evidence and the confession, Esparza turned down probation and went to trial, which Ogorchock thinks Esparza did, hoping the jury would be sympathetic to him. Now he'll be lucky if he avoids jail time.

Even as bemused as Ogorchock is by this convoluted tale of iPod-inspired anger, he gets that in the end, it's no laughing matter.

"People who think these kinds of pranks are funny don't really understand how the Internet works," he said. "In this case, who knows what's been done with the information (on the fake profile) before it was taken down, who's seen it and how many copies are out there? Once something's posted on the Internet, it's out there forever."

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet privacy. Tell her to get a real job on  Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

More on the annoying way we live now:

• Students arrested, expelled for making violent Twitter threats
• Don't 'friend' students on Facebook, NYC teachers told
• Mom's Facebook photo pops up on porn, dating sites
• Priest apologizes for dropping f-bomb on Facebook

Police arrested 25 people in a prostitution sweep in New Britain Thursday, including a man who brought his child along during his alleged search for a prostitute.

Gonzalo Paredes, 32, of New Britian was charged with patronizing a prostitute and risk of injury to or impairing the morals of children. He was picked up while trying to solicit a prostitute Wednesday evening, police said.  Paredes' child was in the car when he was arrested.  Police did not release the child's age.

Read the original story on NBCConnecticut.com

An undercover female officer posed as a prostitute during the sweep, police said. In all, 23 people were charged with patronizing a prostitute and two were charged with prostitution.

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MADISON, Wis. – One Wisconsin man’s idea of a test drive didn’t sit well with a Madison dealer after the 47-year-old motorist took the car on a 150-mile trip around Milwaukee – and didn’t bring it back, police said on Thursday.

“The driver maintained that ‘You just don't take it for a 15-minute test drive’,” Madison Police Officer Howard Payne said. “In my opinion, his explanation was not reasonable … because he did not bring it back.”

Madison police arrested Robert E. Clark on a charge of operating a motor vehicle with consent of owner on Dec. 30, Payne said.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel was first to report the story

The dealer, A to Z Auto in Madison, called police after the man failed to return the silver 2000 Nissan Altima he picked for a test drive, Payne said.

What happened in this case was the dealer was interrupted by customers and was unable to accompany Clark on the drive, Payne said.

“From our standpoint, we don’t get involved in an agreement with two parties,” Payne said. “But off course, this person did not have consent to do what he did.”

Police said Clark drove the car to Milwaukee and returned to his home and not the dealership, both in Madison. His "test" drive was about 150 miles, Payne said.

Clark told officers that he took the Nissan to Milwaukee to secure funds to actually pay for the car, and did have every intention of returning the vehicle the following day, according to the police report released Thursday.

But, police got to him first and spotted the Nissan parked outside his home.

Telephone messages left by msnbc.com at the dealership were not returned Thursday. Two phone listings for Clark had been disconnected; he could not be reached for comment.

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