Investigators are sifting through Mark Hasse’s case files searching for clues as to why the assistant district attorney was targeted by a masked gunman who fatally shot him yesterday in a brazen attack outside his office in the Kaufman County Courthouse in northeast Texas, the Associated Press reports. The slaying rattled prosecutors across the state and angered those who worked with him in Kaufman, located 33 miles southeast of Dallas.
“I hope the people that did this are watching, because we’re very confident that we’re going to pull you out of whatever hole you’re in,” said Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland. McLelland said Hasse, 57, understood and accepted the dangers of his job. “You know there is the potential for somebody bad to do something to you, because they’ve done something bad to somebody else,” McLelland said. He added, Hasse “had an absolute passion for putting away bad guys. He enjoyed nothing better.” Just before 9 a.m. yesterday a masked gunman shot Hasse in a parking lot behind the Kaufman County Courthouse annex, county authorities said.