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A Texas inmate who escaped from a prison bus last month was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers Thursday night, hours after he was suspected of killing an adult and four minors in his home. weekend house, authorities said.
Last month, Gonzalo Artemio López, 46, who was serving a life sentence for a death penalty in 2005 and an attempted murder with a death sentence in 2004, escaped from prison in Leon County. Dallas and Houston. When Lopez was taken to a medical appointment on May 12, authorities said he broke his restrictions, stabbed the bus driver, and eventually left with the bus. He escaped after crashing into a cow pasture.
For weeks, law enforcement searched the area without success. Authorities found the bodies of an adult and four minors at a residence along Highway 7 in Leon County on Thursday, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. A 1999 white Chevy Silverado was missing from the residence and officials said they believed Lopez had killed residents and fled the area with the truck.
Hours after the discovery, law enforcement officers saw Lopez in the truck about 260 miles away in Atascosa County, south of San Antonio. After a chase from the vehicle, Lopez crashed, got out of the truck and fired at officers, TDCJ authorities said. He died when they returned fire, officials said.
Lopez was armed with an AR-15 rifle and a pistol, according to the TDCJ.
TDCJ chief of staff Jason Clark told reporters Thursday night that “we’re breathing a sigh of relief because Lopez won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”
Authorities have not disclosed the names or ages of the victims or how they were killed. Clark said they were from the Houston area and had just arrived at the residence on Thursday, which he described as a weekend home.
Officers had been combing the area for Lopez since he escaped, Clark said, and had “cleaned up” the house “multiple times” before finding the bodies of the victims Thursday around 6 p.m. , which led to the belief that López had entered the residence “recently.” There is no indication that Lopez and the victims knew each other, Clark said.
While fleeing, Lopez was able to “stay in the woods, enter a residence to get water and food, and possibly change clothes,” Clark said.
In a separate briefing, he added that it was unclear if Lopez was already in the house where he allegedly killed the five victims or if he was “leading the structure and just waiting for someone to come in.”
It is likely that the weapons Lopez used during the shooting were from the residence, Clark said.
In 2006, Lopez was convicted of capital murder after kidnapping a man for a drug debt and killing him with a pickaxe, The Washington Post reported. He had also been convicted of attempted manslaughter for shooting a deputy sheriff in Webb County in 2004. Lopez was serving a life sentence and was not eligible for parole until April 2045.
The convicted killer escapes after stabbing the prison bus driver
On May 12, while on a shuttle bus traveling 160 miles between Gatesville and Huntsville, Lopez somehow freed himself from his restrictions, making his way to a metal-cage-like area where the driver was found and stabbed the driver, according to the TDCJ. After driving on the bus for a short distance, Lopez crashed into the cow pasture and fled. The injuries of the bus driver did not endanger his life.
There was a human hunt involving about 300 law enforcement officers and a $ 50,000 reward was offered for information leading to Lopez’s capture. The search, which the TDCJ described as “exhaustive”, was not completed until Thursday, when the bodies were found. Hours later, law enforcement officers saw Lopez driving the white Silverado to Jourdanton, Tex.
On Thursday night, Jourdanton officers began following Lopez in the van and shot the tires, Clark said. After a brief chase in a residential area, Clark said, Lopez crashed into a tree, got out of the truck, and finally fired “several rounds” at officers.
“And those officers shot and killed Lopez very quickly, ending all this testing,” Clark said, adding that none of the officers were injured. Clark said the TDCJ was notified that Lopez had been killed around 10:30 p.m.
Asked by a reporter if the TDCJ had failed the five dead, Clark said the agency would conduct “a serious incident review to determine exactly how this escape took place.”
“Every time you have something serious like this, it’s up to us to find out, how did it escape? How did it go beyond our security protocols to leave that transport vehicle?” Clark added. “And that’s something we’re absolutely going to do. “.
Timothy Bella contributed to this report.