Video shows Texas DA shopping for guns before death
(CBS News) KAUFMAN, Texas - If there were any doubt about what was on the mind of the district attorney in Kaufman County, Texas, in the hours before he was assassinated, this video obtained by CBS News says it all.
In what may have been the last picture ever taken of Mike McLelland, surveillance video shows him shopping for guns - not for himself, but for the folks who worked for him the the DA's office. They were his main concern.
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The videotape was captured by security cameras at a gun shop in Forney, Texas. It was taken about 1:30 last Friday afternoon. The next day, McLelland and his wife Cynthia were found dead in their home.
"I was showing him one of the revolvers," said O'Neill Kidwill, who owns the store.
"I asked him if he was ever in fear of his life, he said no. He was more worried about his coworkers."
Kidwill says McLelland asked him to recommend guns to buy for his worried employees who were frightened by the unsolved murder of Assistant DA Mark Hasse in January. But Kidwell says McLelland seemed at ease.
"He didn't seem like anything was going to happen to him. He was invincible. He was happy," Kidwill said. "Everything was good in his world."
Kidwell says he chatted with his friend for half an hour as McLelland looked at several handguns.
He says he told McClelland he should buy 38-caliber revolvers and bulletproof vests for his staff and that McClelland he should also wear a vest. When McClelland left the store, it was the last time Kidwill spoke to him.
On Thursday he was among those attending McLelland's memorial service.
Bruce Bryant, is chief investigator at the district attorney's office.
" I don't know what their murder hoped to accomplish by killing these two great souls," Bruce Bryant, chief investigator at the district attorney's office, said at the memorial. "If it was anything other than their own gratification for robbing us of two of the best people God ever created, he failed."
Interim District Attorney Brandi Fernandez, who is now under 24-hour guard, vowed to continue McLelland's work.
"We take an oath to serve the community," she said. "We're unnerved a little bit, but we're going to stick to our oath."
The funeral for McLelland takes palace on Friday. Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced that the award for information that leads to the catching and conviction of his killer or killers stands at over $200,000.
