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A Texas inmate who escaped from a prison bus last month died in a shootout with police on Thursday night, hours after he was suspected of killing an adult and four juveniles at their home, authorities said.
Last month, Gonzalo Artemio Lopez, 46, who was serving a life sentence for his 2005 murder and attempted murder in 2004, escaped arrest in Leon County, between Dallas and Houston. While Lopez was transported to a medical examination on May 12, authorities said he got out of custody, stabbed the bus driver and eventually took the bus. He escaped after crashing into a cow pasture.
For weeks, law enforcement officers searched the area to no avail. Authorities then found the bodies of an adult and four minors at a residence on 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 authorities said they believed Lopez had killed residents and fled the area by truck.
Hours after the discovery, law enforcement officers spotted Lopez in a truck about 260 miles from Atascosa County, south of San Antonio. After chasing the vehicle, Lopez crashed, got out of the truck and shot at police, TDCJ authorities said. He was killed when they returned fire, according to officials.
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 sigh with relief that Lopez will not be able to hurt anyone else.”
Authorities did not say the names or ages of the victims, nor did they say how they were killed. Clark said they were from the Houston area and had just arrived Thursday at the residence he described as home for the weekend.
Officials have been combing the Lopez area since he fled, Clark said, and “cleared” the home “several times” before finding the bodies of victims there around 6pm on Thursday, prompting authorities to believe Lopez entered the residence. “Recently.” There is no indication that Lopez and the victims knew each other, Clark said.
While on the run, Lopez managed to “stay in the woods, enter a residence to get water and food, and eventually change his clothes,” Clark said.
He added at a separate briefing that it was unclear whether Lopez had already been to the home where he allegedly killed the five victims, or that he had “covered the structure and was just waiting for someone to enter”.
Lopez’s weapons were probably from the residence, Clark said.
In 2006, Lopez was sentenced to death after kidnapping a man for drug debt and killing him with a pickaxe, The Washington Post reported. He was also convicted of attempted murder for the shooting of a deputy sheriff in Web County in 2004. Lopez was serving a life sentence and not eligible for parole until April 2045.
Convicted killer escapes after allegedly stabbing a bus driver in jail
On May 12, while on a 160-mile shuttle bus between Gatesville to Huntsville, Lopez somehow freed himself from his restraints, cut his way into a metal-cage-like area where the driver was, and stabbed the driver, according to the TDCJ. After boarding the bus a short distance away, Lopez crashed into a cow pasture and fled. Injuries to the bus driver are not life-threatening.
A large-scale search involving about 300 law enforcement officers followed, and a $ 50,000 reward was offered for information leading to Lopez’s capture. The search, which the TDCJ described as “exhaustive”, revealed nothing until Thursday, when the bodies were found. Hours later, police spotted Lopez driving a white Silvarado in Jourdanton, Texas.
Police in Jourdanton began chasing Lopez in a pickup truck on Thursday night and punctured his tires, Clark said. After a brief chase in a residential area, Clark said, Lopez crashed into a tree, got out of the truck and eventually fired “several shots” at officers while armed with an AR-15 and a handgun.
“And these officers shot and killed Lopez very quickly, ending this whole ordeal,” Clark said, adding that none of the officers were injured. Clark said the TDCJ had been informed 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 review of the incident to determine exactly how the escape came about.”
“Every time you have something serious like this, we have to go back to find out how he escaped.” How did he break our security records to leave this vehicle? ”Clark added. “So this is something we will absolutely do.”
Timothy Bella contributed to this report.
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