CENTERVILLE, Texas –
A convicted murderer fleeing from escaping from a prison bus last month was shot dead by law enforcement in Texas after killing five members of the same family, including four children, and stealing a truck. from their rural weekend cabin, officials said.
Gonzalo Lopez, 46, died Thursday afternoon in a shootout with police in Jourdanton, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of San Antonio, after driving more than 200 miles (322 kilometers). of the cabin, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He had been on the run since he was stabbed by a prison bus driver on May 12.
When Lopez was shot, he had an AR-15-style rifle and a pistol that authorities say could have been taken from the cockpit, Clark said.
Authorities in Atascosa County, about 220 miles (354 kilometers) southwest of the cab, spotted the stolen pickup truck Thursday night and tracked it down, leaving it behind to warn it of its presence. , said Sheriff David Soward. Jourdanton police officers then used spikes to flatten the truck’s tires. But Lopez was still able to continue driving and pulling the rifle out the window and firing several shots at officers before hitting two telephone poles and a fence, Soward said.
“He got out of his truck. He fired more meat. At least four officers fired at the suspect,” Soward said.
The search for Lopez, who escaped while being transported to a caged area of a prison bus, intensified Thursday when someone called police because they were worried he had not heard from an elderly relative.
This led officers to a rural hut near Centerville in Leon County, in the same area where Lopez had escaped from the bus. Authorities did not immediately release the names of the five people found dead inside the cabin.
The Tomball School District in the suburbs of Houston said Friday that the four children were students in his district and the adult was his grandfather.
“There are no words. During this difficult time, the Tomball community continues to unite after the tragic loss of four students,” said school district superintendent Martha Salazar-Zamora.
The victims were thought to have arrived at the cabin on Thursday morning, which they owned, Clark said. The five are believed to have been killed that afternoon and had nothing to do with Lopez, he said. Authorities do not yet know if Lopez had stayed in the cabin and if he ambushed them on arrival, Clark said.
“We are very sad that the killings have happened, but I will tell you that we are breathing a sigh of relief because Lopez will not be able to hurt anyone else,” Clark said.
Lopez had been the subject of intensive research since his escape. He was being transported from a Gatesville prison to a Huntsville prison for a medical appointment, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. He escaped from Leon County, a rural area between Dallas and Houston, more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Gatesville.
The department has said Lopez somehow freed himself from his hands and legs, cut the expanded metal from the cage and crawled from the bottom. He then attacked the driver, who stopped the bus and quarreled with Lopez, and they finally got off the bus.
A second officer in the back of the bus got out and approached Lopez, who got back on the bus and started driving, the department said.
Officers fired at Lopez and deactivated the bus by firing the rear tire, the department said. The bus traveled a short distance before leaving the road, where Lopez got off and ran into the woods. At one point, Lopez stabbed the driver, whose injuries were not life-threatening, the department said.
Clark said a “serious incident review” will be conducted on the leak.
“It’s up to us to go back to find out how he escaped, how he overcame our safety protocols to leave this transport vehicle,” Clark said.
Lopez was serving a life sentence for a 2006 sentence for murdering a man on the Texas-Mexico border.