MONUMENT, Colorado: The head of state prisons in Colorado was shot and killed when he answered the front door of his house, and police are searching for the gunman.

Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, was shot around 8:30 p.m. local time Tuesday in Monument, north of Colorado Springs, said Lt. Jeff Kramer, of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

A family member called police to report the shooting and officers found Clements, 58, dead. Search dogs have been called in to comb through a wooded area around Clements’ home, and authorities were going house to house trying to find out what neighbors heard and saw.

Gov. John Hickenlooper appointed Clements to the post in 2011 after he served for more than three decades in the Missouri Department of Corrections. He replaced Ari Zavaras, a former Denver police chief who led the department under two governors.

The Colorado department operates 20 adult prisons and a juvenile detainment system.

After Clements was appointed, Hickenlooper praised Clements for his approach to incarceration.