By Catherine Marfin and Nataly Keomoungkhoun
Officials in Central Texas said late Thursday that an escaped inmate serving a life sentence for murder was dead.
The Leon County Sheriff’s Office, located about halfway between Dallas and Houston, announced about 10:30 p.m. that Gonzalo Lopez was “captured & deceased.” On Friday, officials said he had been killed in a shootout with authorities in Atacosa County, near San Antonio.
Authorities had released additional information hours earlier about the search for Lopez, 46, who had been on the run since his escape from a prison bus last month.
In a series of tweets, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Lopez may have been driving a pickup that was missing from a cabin where authorities found five people dead.
The TDCJ initially said authorities responded to the cabin in Centerville and found the bodies. Police responded after someone expressed concern about an elderly relative.
The victims were identified as Mark Collins, 66, and his four grandsons: Waylon Collins, 18, Carson Collins, 16, Hudson Collins, 11, and Bryson Collins, 11.
Tomball ISD, located in Harris County, said in an email to families that four of its students were killed.
“We ask that you extend your prayers and support to these families who need us the most at this time,” the school district said. “We share a special bond in Tomball and understand this will personally affect many students and families in our small community.”
Jason Clark, a TDCJ spokesman, said the home was a weekend cabin for the family. The family was thought to have arrived at the cabin Thursday morning, which they owned, Clark said. They are believed to have been killed that afternoon and had no link to Lopez, he said.
Authorities don’t yet know whether Lopez had been staying in the cabin or if he ambushed them upon their arrival, Clark said.
Clark said that law enforcement officers in Atacosa County, south of San Antonio, spotted Lopez driving the pickup Thursday. They followed him and spiked his tires, officials said.
After a short chase and a crash, Lopez got out of the truck with at least two firearms, TDCJ officials said. He fired several shots at the officers and they returned fire, killing him. No officers were struck.
Lopez was convicted of capital murder in Hidalgo County and sentenced to life in prison in 2006, records show. He was last incarcerated at a prison in Gatesville, about 130 miles west of Leon County.
Lopez escaped from a prison transport bus May 12 after he overpowered the driver. None of the other 15 prisoners on board escaped.
The department has said Lopez somehow freed himself from his hand and leg restraints, cut through the expanded metal of the cage and crawled from the bottom. He then attacked the driver, who stopped the bus and got into an altercation with Lopez, and they both eventually got off the bus.
A second officer at the rear of the bus then exited and approached Lopez, who got back on the bus and started driving down the road, the department said.
The officers fired at Lopez and disabled the bus by shooting the rear tire, the department said. The bus then traveled a short distance before leaving the roadway, where Lopez got out and ran into the woods. At some point during the escape, Lopez stabbed the driver, whose wounds weren’t life-threatening, the department said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
