An alleged white supremacist gang member wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of Colorado's prisons chief was arrested on Thursday.

Thomas Guolee, 31, was arrested by Colorado Springs and state police, NBC affiliate KUSA reported.

Guolee is a parolee who served a prison sentence for intimidating a witness and giving a pawn broker false information, among other charges, the Associated Press reported.

While in prison, Guolee is believed to have joined the 211 Crew, a white supremacist gang formed in the mid-1990s.

A week ago, James Lohr, 47, another alleged 211 Crew member, was arrested in Colorado Springs after he led police on a short car chase and then fled on foot. He was charged with eluding law enforcement and held on three unrelated outstanding warrants, including a bail violation and a violation of a protection order.

Police have not called either Guolee or Lohr suspects, but say their names surfaced during the investigation into Colorado prison director Tom Clements' slaying.

Guolee's mother told KUSA on Thursday evening that she is relieved that her son is in custody.

"Thank god. It was way overdue," Debbie Eck told the station. "I just want him to get things taken care of so he can be a part of his daughter's life. My heart's been hurting. Now that I know he's in custody, I can kinda take a sigh of relief." 

Evan Ebel, also said to be a 211 Crew member, is the only suspect police have named in the March 19 shooting death of Clements, who was gunned down apparently while opening the door to his home.

Ebel, who is also suspected in the slaying of a pizza deliveryman Nathan Leon two days earlier, was shot and killed in a shootout with Texas police on March 21.

Police said they found bomb-making materials and a pizza delivery uniform in Ebel’s car.

NBC News' Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.

Related:

• Alleged white supremacist arrested in connection with Colorado prison chief's death
• White supremacists sought for questioning in Colo. prison chief's death
• White supremacist groups in the spotlight after high-profile murders

A 28-year-old father injured in a Monday shooting that also killed his daughter was released from the hospital Thursday.

Jonathan Watkins stood silently as Pastor Corey Brooks, who has been acting as the family's spokesman, spoke to reporters outside the 5th District police station shortly after 9:30 p.m. Brooks said Watkins wished to "fully" cooperate with authorities and dispel misinformation that's been reported this week. He didn't offer specifics.

"His wounds haven't even healed yet and he's in a lot of pain and so we're going to go in and whatever the police need to know that he may know, we want to make sure that he fully commits himself to letting them know that," said Brooks.

Police said Jonathan Watkins told them he was changing the diaper on his 6-month-old daughter, Jonylah Watkins, on Monday when someone came up behind him and started shooting. Sources told NBC Chicago on Wednesday police had their doubts about that story.

Read the original story at NBCChicago.com

The girl suffered multiple injuries to her little body and died the morning after the shooting. A medical examiner source told NBC Chicago the damage to her thigh, shoulder, lung live and bowels may have been caused by a single bullet.

Jonathan Watkins, police said, has ties to the Gangster Disciples and has an extensive criminal record. Police records show he's been arrested 39 times and was likely the shooter's intended target. Numerous weapons violations and an attempt to steal his car back from police after it was impounded are among the previous charges against the father.

"He paid for his crime. He's fine with that. We're not trying to hide from that. We're not ducking and dodging from that," Brooks said Thursday night. "But that's not the issue. The issue is a baby got shot and killed and we need everybody to stay on point and stay on focus on what happened."

Gang violence claims 6-month-old baby even as homicides fall in Chicago

Jonylah Watkins' funeral has been scheduled for March 19. Brooks said basketball star Derrick Rose has offered to pay for the services.

An $11,000 reward stands for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.

Even in a city with more than 500 homicides a year, it's a crime that shocks the senses: a 6-month-old Chicago girl fatally shot five times while having her diaper changed in the family van.

Shootings and murders are down dramatically from the same point last year, when Chicago had more homicides than any other metropolis in the country, but that statistic means nothing to those mourning Jonylah Watkins.

The infant died Tuesday morning after several surgeries to repair injuries from five bullets that tore through her body the previous afternoon, family spokesman Pastor Corey Brooks said.

"The city of Chicago should be outraged that a 6-month-old baby could be shot and killed in our city," Brooks told NBCChicago.com. "It's horrific."

It appears the baby's father, who has an extensive criminal history, was the target, said Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who added that the shooting has "very strong gang overtones."

"This is another tragedy, because no child, certainly not an infant, should be a victim of gun violence," McCarthy said at a press conference.

The father, Jonathan Watkins, 28, was shot in the buttocks and the face and was in stable condition Tuesday.

"I was trying to help her,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times after learning his daughter had died. "They told me she didn’t make it."

Gang violence has fueled the bloodshed in Chicago, which ended 2012 with 506 homicides on the books even as overall crime took a downturn.

Family photo

Jonylah Watkins

It was a gang turf war that led to another notorious slaying, the shooting of 15-year-old high-school majorette Hadiya Pendleton just days after she performed during President Obama's inauguration weekend.

The circumstances of Pendleton's death -- an honor student marked for death after she unwittingly set foot on gang territory -- made her a face of the national gun-control debate and sparked a local crime crackdown.

Chicago cops say new tactics are yielding results: Murders are down 26 percent and shootings are down 19 percent in the first quarter of this year over the same period last year.

"There's going to be good days, and there’s going to be bad days," McCarthy said after confirming the baby's death. "Today is obviously a bad day.”

McCarthy said no witness to the shooting has come forward, echoing the frustration he expressed after Pendleton's murder, when cops pleaded for an end to the no-snitching credo of the streets.

Brooks offered a $5,000 reward.

"We're going to find who did this and make sure they are brought to justice...We're not going to be afraid. We're going to take back our neighborhood."

Jonylah's grandmother, Mary Young, said the child had been touched by gun violence even before birth, when her mother was grazed in the knee by a bullet while pregnant.

M. Spencer Green / AP

A makeshift memorial is seen in Chicago, Tuesday at the site where 6-month-old girl Jonylah Watkins, and her father were shot.

Hadiya Pendleton's family faced the most heart-breaking of tasks Thursday: choosing the dress the 15-year-old shooting victim will wear at her funeral.

"It's been 48 hours of nothing but love, but now they need some time alone," cousin Shatira Wilks said.

The Chicago teen's death on Tuesday -- just a week after she performed during President Barack Obama's inaugural festivities -- put her loved ones in the spotlight.

They consoled the high school sophomore's many friends and cousins. They met with the mayor and spoke to the city's top cop.

Then they asked to be left alone for a day, so they could finalize plans to say farewell to a girl whose death had made headlines across the country and to grieve together.

For Pendleton's 10-year-old brother, Nate, known as Junior, that meant spending time in his big sister's now-empty room.

"He has been sleeping in her bed at night," Wilks said. "It's really sad. He was a serious little brother. And she loved being a big sister."

Pendleton was gathered with fellow members of the volleyball team in a park near the selective King College Prep High School when a gunman opened fire on the group Tuesday afternoon.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Hadiya Pendleton's parents, Nate and Cleo, and her 10-year-old brother, whom she called Junior.

Police believe the shooter mistakenly thought the teens were members of a rival gang hanging out on disputed turf. He has not been caught.

Pendleton's mother, Cleopatra Cowley, told MSNBC's Al Sharpton on Thursday how she was at work when she got the call that her daughter had been shot.

"I took the first cab I could come across to get to my baby," she said, racked with sobs. "Never in a million years did I imagine I would be getting a call that my baby was shot."

She spoke of her daughter's love of books, her wide-eyed trip to Washington and her promising future.

"She loved life ... and she didn’t want to be anything more than she was – and that was just 15," Cowley said.

The pastor of the family's church said there is a sliver of consolation in the knowledge that the teen's death is stirring more debate about crime and guns in a city where more than 500 people were murdered last year.

"Something has to be done," Pastor Courtney C. Maxwell said, not long after Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he was putting 200 more cops on the street. "I pray something positive comes out of this."

He said he had known Pendleton for about five years and was working on the tribute he will read to mourners at the Greater Deliverance Temple Church.

"What do you say about a young person to her hurt parents, to a hurt community, to a hurt nation?" he said.

Related:

• Friend: Slain Chicago teen said, 'I think I got shot,' then 'she just fell'
• Gunned down after 'the happiest day of her life'
• After Hadiya's death, Chicago to put 200 more cops on the street

Four years before she became the innocent victim of what may have been a gang turf war, Hadiya Pendleton starred in an anti-gang public-service video.

Courtesy the Pendleton family

Hadiya Pendleton and friends on her visit to Washington for President Obama's inauguration. She was shot in Chicago a week later.

She was a sixth grader at Carter G. Woodson Elementary School when she delivered a message against the kind of violence that led to her death in a Chicago park on Tuesday.

"Hi, my name is Hadiya... this commercial is informational for you and your future children," she says in the video, which was first reported by DNAinfo.com.

"So many children out there are in gangs, and it's your job to say no to gangs and yes to your future."

The other girl in the video pointed out that too many kids are killed by gang violence, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Police say that appears to be exactly what happened to Pendleton, who was hanging out with volleyball teammates after school when a gunman opened fire on a group of teens. Only a week before, she had been part of a performance at President Obama's inauguration festivities.

Investigators believe the park Hadiya and her pals were in may have been at the center of a turf war, even though the kids were not affiliated with any gangs.

Pendleton's cousin, Shatira Wilks, said most of the family had never seen the video – part of an anti-violence project with the non-profit Digital Youth Network -- before it surfaced after her death.

"But it shows you about Hadiya's personality. She has always been a part of anything that represented good. She never liked being part of anything negative and that is why so many people loved her," Wilks said.

"This video is an affirmation, an acknowledgement of where she stood -- and the tragedy behind it is this is exactly how she died."

The Digital Youth Network said the student-produced piece was part of a project to counter violence through media, and called Pendleton a “learner and a creative voice.”

 “We are inspired by the passion Hadiya and the youth of Chicago have shown for sculpting a better future for themselves and others and will continue to support these efforts in any way we can,” the group said in a statement.

 At a press conference Thursday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the city saw "both an increase in gun violence and gang-related activities" in the past year.

“Before a flame becomes a fire… put it out," he said in announcing new anti-crime measures.

Related stories:

• Friend: Slain Chicago teen said, 'I think I got shot,' then 'she just fell'
• Gunned down after 'the happiest day of her life'
• After Hadiya's death, Chicago to put 200 more cops on the street

Via AP

These undated 2012 photos provided by the Minnesota Department of Corrections show Arthur Francis Cree, left, William Earl Morris, center, and a photo provided by the U.S. Marshall's Service shows Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, right. The three members of a violent American Indian gang are accused of being part of a criminal enterprise that used intimidation and violence to keep the gang in power.

Three people alleged to be members of a violent American Indian gang known for terrorizing people from the Twin Cities to reservations in greater Minnesota, Wisconsin and beyond went on trial Tuesday in what authorities call one of the largest gang cases to come out of Indian Country.

Wakinyon Wakan McArthur, 34, — an alleged leader of the Native Mob — and two alleged Native Mob "soldiers," Anthony Francis Cree, 26, and William Earl Morris, 25, are accused of being part of a criminal enterprise that used intimidation and violence to keep the gang in power. They face multiple charges, including conspiracy to participate in racketeering and attempted murder in the aid of racketeering.

Prosecutors said the case is important partly because of its size — 25 people were charged in a 57-count indictment — and because the racketeering charge is a tool rarely used against gangs, indicating this is an attempt to take down the entire enterprise.

"This is a major case on many levels," U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Jeanne Cooney said. "It's one of the largest, if not the largest case dealing with Native American gangs."

The 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment says the Native Mob is one of the largest and most violent American Indian gangs in the U.S., and is most active in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as Michigan, North Dakota and South Dakota. It is made up of mostly American Indian men and boys, and started in Minneapolis in the 1990s as members fought for turf to deal drugs. The Native Mob is also active in prison.

Tom Heffelfinger, a former U.S. attorney in Minnesota who has worked to curb crime in Indian Country, said racketeering charges were appropriate in this case. While the statutes outlawing racketeering — when multiple people commit crimes together in order to benefit a criminal enterprise — were created to go after groups like the Mafia, Heffelfinger said the statute is well-suited to go after any organized criminal activity.

But Frederick Goetz, McArthur's attorney, said this case doesn't fit the bill.

"There is, and there was, no racketeering enterprise," Goetz said. "The interesting part of the case will be sorting the myth from the reality."

Goetz said many of the allegations aren't part of a conspiracy, but are sporadic, individual acts carried out by disaffected, alienated youths who have dealt with tough circumstances on reservations.

The Native Mob has about 200 members, according to the indictment, and is recruiting new ones. Heffelfinger said some recruitment happens at powwows, as recruiters use Native American culture and the "warrior mentality" to attract children.

The indictment paints a picture of a structured group that held monthly meetings where members were encouraged to assault or murder enemies, or anyone who showed disrespect.

Authorities say McArthur was a leader or "chief" of the Native Mob, and directed other members to carry out beatings, shootings and the armed home invasion of a rival drug dealer. The indictment said that in 2010, he ordered fellow gang members to shoot at a rival's house to keep him from dealing on Native Mob turf, authorized the assault of a prison inmate in 2008 and recruited new members from prison.

He also, according to the indictment, wrote a letter from prison to a fellow Native Mob member in 2004, describing a plan to hold people accountable, and saying "Discipline and promote fear is the quickest way to progress our case."

The indictment also said that in 2010, Morris and Cree tried to kill a man by shooting him multiple times while he held his 5-year-old daughter. The indictment said it was done at McArthur's behest, and in retaliation because the man was cooperating with authorities.

Goetz had no comment on specifics in the indictment, but said the Native Mob is about keeping people safe.

"Are we saying this is the Boys and Girls Club? No. But I think the actual purpose of this is to decrease the violence rather than increase the violence," Goetz said.

Christopher Grant, a national Native American gang specialist in South Dakota, said there are hundreds of American Indian gangs nationwide. Most, he said, are loosely organized and might have as few as five members.

"I consider Native Mob to be the most organized, violent and predatory street gang structure in Indian Country," Grant said. "There are many other Native American gangs ... but Native Mob stands out in terms of their victimization of Native American people in both tribal and non-tribal communities."

Though racketeering cases against Native American gangs are rare, they are not unprecedented.

In Arizona, three members of the East Side Bloods in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community are awaiting trial on racketeering crimes. And in 1997, five members of the East Side Crips Rolling 30s, also in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Community, were convicted on racketeering charges.

The Native Mob trial starts Tuesday with jury selection and is expected to take several weeks as prosecutors plan to call about 300 witnesses — including current and former Native Mob members, crime victims and members of rival gangs. Evidence could include recordings collected by undercover informants and prison calls, according to court documents.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Orange County Register via AP

Authorities display a poster showing persons of interest during a news conference in Anaheim, Calif., Friday to announce Operation Halo.

A yearlong probe into one of Southern California’s most notorious street gangs netted dozens of arrests, 11 pounds of crystal meth and a cache of weapons, authorities said Friday.

The morning raid in Orange County, dubbed Operation Halo, involved more than 100 federal agents and Anaheim police officers. Their mission: Collar 49 people suspected of trafficking narcotics and firearms, said Christian Hoffman, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Los Angeles.

“We took criminals and guns off the streets today,” Hoffman told NBC News. “In addition to that, we also got 11 pounds of methamphetamine, with a street value of well over $1 million. You can say we put a big dent in their drug trade today.”

Of those sought, 33 people were arrested on federal and state charges, while others were already in custody on unrelated charges, according to investigators. At least 11 people were taken into custody on federal narcotics charges, Hoffman said.

Authorities targeted 54 locations in East Anaheim, which is in Orange County, and parts of Los Angeles County, said Sgt. Bob Dunn with the Anaheim police force.

Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter

The firearms recovered during the operation included sawed-off shotguns, assault-style weapons and semi-automatic handguns, investigators said.

The raid follows a summer of gang-related violence and deadly officer-related shootings, including the deaths of two Latino men suspected of gang activity, according to police.

“There has been tension here over the last few weeks,” Dunn told NBC News. “But today's arrests have nothing to do with the shootings; it is only happenstance.”

Morecontent from NBCNews.com:

• Human remains confirmed to be missing college student
• Hero boy, 4, dies after saving 3-year-old girl in pool
• Vietnam veteran receives Silver Star 44 years after service
• Hundreds pay respects to Sikh temple victims
• Video: Near-death plane crash caught on video

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Derrick House, Frederick Seaton and Napoleon English know all too well about the violence that is plaguing the streets of Chicago. Each man has spent time in prison; two of them for murder.

But these days they spend their time trying to prevent one person from shooting another. They work for Ceasefire.

With a 39 percent jump in homicides in the first six months of 2012 compared to 2011, a new and sometimes uneasy alliance takes root on Friday to try and combat the deadly mayhem. Ceasefire workers and the Chicago Police Department begin, for the first time, to work together.

"Eighty percent of the homicides in Chicago are black on black homicides," said Tio Hardiman, the executive director of Ceasefire.

Hardiman, who grew up in the gang-riddled Henry Horner Housing complex, says Ceasefire’s job is to stop, in his words, "a guy from crossing the line."

"Therefore nobody goes to the cemetery. Nobody goes to the penitentiary," he noted as he sat in a west side park.

Watch US News crime videos on msnbc.com

Ceasefire began in 2000 as a public health initiative to try and put a stop to what was seen as an epidemic of violence in the city. The most controversial part of the program was recruiting ex-gang members and ex-felons to act as mediators.

Historically, the number of murders in Chicago has been much higher. Two decades ago, one year saw the city rack up more than 900 homicides.

But the nearly 40 percent jump in murders this year, even as overall crime goes down, has sparked a fierce debate on how to stop it.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Ceasefire is just one part of the city’s anti-violence arsenal, including boarding up vacant buildings, after school programs, curfews, and using legal RICO statutes to prosecute gang leaders.

There are an estimated 100,000 gang members in the city.

In the 1970s, gangs like the Blackstone Rangers and the Eastside Disciples, while deadly, existed with a top-down command structure.

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

Today the gangs have splintered into more factions and the fights, and the shootings look more like anarchy than organization.

"There is no gang structure on the west side," said Fred Seaton. "It's just cliques."

"You have these renegade factions, anybody might shoot you now-a-days," said Hardiman.

On a recent summer evening, Patricia Bradley watched from her porch as teens played ball on her Austin neighborhood street.

"In order to stop this violence we have to have some jobs," she says, realizing that chronic poverty is, at times, combustible.

"Some of our young people are so full of rage and hate that you don’t know where to start," Bradley noted.

In 2011, Ceasefire says it worked with 1,100 high risk individuals over the course of more than 48,000 hours.

Asked if they at times feel hopeless, Derrick House spoke for Fred Seaton and Napoleon English.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

"I never feel hopeless," he said. "Never. I’m like, can’t give up on 'em. You can’t give up on 'em."

And Ceasefire officials say their work is paying dividends.

From January 2012 to May 2012, according to Hardiman, the Ceasefire zones have experienced about a 20 percent reduction in shootings and homicides this year already.

"In order to stop a homicide you have to have the ability to intercept a whisper," he says, noting, "it only takes about five seconds to pull the trigger."

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Deadly black lung surges in coal country
• Barbecue brush bristle in man's intestine
• Alligator attack: Florida teenager loses part of arm
• More charges in 'Fast and Furious' border agent slaying
• Detroit police chief: Fatal shooting after hug was accident
• Marine doing 1 million push-ups to help wounded vets
• Video: Scott Peterson appealing murder conviction

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook