A family of five has been killed in Texas by a convicted murderer who escaped from a prison bus, authorities said.
Fugitive Gonzalo Lopez, 46, was shot dead late Thursday night, according to Texas prison officials, but not before he killed the family – including three children – and stole their pickup truck.
Police found the bodies in the family hut over the weekend in the woods after receiving a call from someone worried they would not receive an answer from an adult relative.
The fugitive is believed to have been hiding near the cabin.
“Atascos County law enforcement found the stolen vehicle, disabled it with spikes and a shooting ensued,” said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
He was “killed by the police in Atascosa County. He shot at police officers, who returned fire and killed him.
Authorities did not reveal the identity of the family Lopez killed, but added they had no connection to Lopez.
Lopez has been on the run since May 12 after escaping from a prison bus and stabbing his driver.
Authorities said Lopez managed to break free of his restraints on the prison bus and then cut through the expanded metal of the cage and crawled through the bottom.
He then attacked the driver, who stopped the bus and got into an argument with Lopez, and they both got off the bus.
Lopez got back on the bus and was leaving when a second officer got out of the car from behind. Officers fired on Lopez, who got off the bus after shots knocked the car out of order and fled into the woods. Authorities say that at one point during the escape, Lopez stabbed the driver, whose injuries are not life-threatening.
A former member of the Mexican mafia prison gang and linked to South Texas, Lopez has been the subject of an intensive search since his escape from the bus.
He was serving a life sentence for a 2006 sentence for killing a man on the Texas-Mexico border.
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