Thomas Wales.Photo: FBI
A $2.5 million reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of a Seattle federal prosecutor.
The additional reward money was announced on the 20th anniversary of the slaying of Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Wales.
“The Department of Justice will never forget Tom’s contributions to the department and the cause of justice, nor will we forget the tragedy of his death,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a press release. “Although two decades have passed, the Department of Justice remains committed to this investigation. Somebody knows something about this murder, and we want to do everything we can to encourage them to come forward now.”
A witness saw a male suspect run from the area.
Wales, a 49-year-old father of two, died the following day at the hospital.
There were many theories about what happened to Wales. One of them was that he was targeted because he was the president of Washington CeaseFire, a gun control group.
The Seattle Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that the FBI has long believed that a pilot who Wales prosecuted for fraud enlisted a drug cartel to kill him. According to that theory, the drug cartel recruited a shooter to kill the prosecutor.
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In addition to the reward, the Department of Justice announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington where Wales worked will join the long-established Wales task force of agents and officers from the FBI, the Seattle Police Department and the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
“The addition of these resources, including attorneys and investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington and FBI, will put the department in the strongest possible position to solve Tom’s murder,” Monaco said in the press release.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or emailwalestips@fbi.gov.
source: people.com
