CENTERVILLE, Texas (KBTX) – A Texas Department of Homeland Security spokesman told KBTX that five people were found murdered in Leon County, near the area where fugitive inmate Gonzalo Lopez was last seen in May . There is a large law enforcement presence in the area, including a helicopter.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says law enforcement received a call from a person who was worried after not hearing from an elderly relative. Officers arrived at the home and discovered the bodies of two adults and three children.
The residence was missing a 1999 white Chevrolet Silverado, license plate DPV4520. TDCJ says the fugitive inmate, Gonzalo Lopez, may be driving the vehicle and may be armed.
Highway 7 is closed again west of Centerville.
On social media, several Centerville residents said there was a sudden increase in police activity in a rural area west of Centerville not far from where the escape took place. KBTX has contacted TDCJ officials for more details, but said nothing could be confirmed or posted at this time. An information session will be held later tonight, officials said, but no exact time has been given.
Lopez, 46, escaped from a TDCJ prison bus on Highway 7 west of Centerville on May 12 while on their way to Huntsville for a medical appointment.
“It’s cunning,” Texas Department of Justice spokesman Robert Hurst said last month. “He did it before in South Texas in Webb County. He hid for almost nine days.”
Earlier this week, authorities investigated a possible sighting of Lopez on Highway 21 in Madison County, but later determined it was not him, although the man who was reported by a concerned citizen fled. towards a wooded area and was never located.
Lopez, who was serving a life sentence, was being taken to a medical appointment in a caged area of the bus for high-risk inmates.
While Lopez was being transported, he somehow freed himself from his hands and legs, cut the expanded metal from the cage and crawled down the bottom, TDCJ said. He then attacked the driver, who stopped the bus and quarreled with Lopez, the department said. Eventually they both got off the bus.
At one point, the driver was stabbed and injured in the hand and chest, said Jason Clark, the department’s chief of staff. He said the driver’s injuries were not life-threatening.
A second officer in the back of the bus got out and approached Lopez, who got back on the bus and started driving down the road, the department said.
Officers fired at Lopez and deactivated the bus by firing a rear tire, the department said. The bus drove a short distance before leaving the road, where Lopez got off and ran into the woods, according to the department.
Sixteen prisoners were on board the bus, but no one else escaped, the department said.
A $ 50,000 reward is still being offered for catching Lopez.
Leon County has a population of about 16,000 and is located about 50 miles north of Huntsville State Prison Headquarters.
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While investigating clues within the search perimeter, law enforcement received a call from a person who …
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