A convicted murderer who eluded authorities for more than three weeks after stabbing a prison bus driver and escaping was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers south of San Antonio, authorities said.
Gonzalo Lopez, 46, had been the subject of an intensive search since his escape from the prison bus on May 12. The Leon County Sheriff’s Office announced in a Facebook post that Lopez had been captured and was deceased. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice also confirmed Lopez’s death, KBTX-TV reported.
“Officer-involved shooting with TDCJ Escapee and suspect in 5 murders today in Centerville, Texas. Highway 16 north and Cypress in Jourdanton, avoid the area, multiple emergency vehicles. No officers injured,” Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward wrote in a Facebook post.
Earlier Thursday, Texas prison system officials said Lopez was a prime suspect in the killing of five Houston family members. Officials believe Lopez stole the family’s truck from a rural weekend cabin, KHOU-TV reported.
Update 7:38 p.m. EDT June 3: Authorities said Lopez killed Mark Collins, 66, and his four grandsons -- Waylon Collins, 18; Carson Collins, 16; Hudson Collins, 11; and Bryson Collins, 11, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Original report: TDCJ officials said law enforcement officers in Atascosa County, south of San Antonio, spotted Lopez driving the truck at about 10:30 p.m. CDT, according to the television station.
Officers trailed Lopez and eventually spiked his tires, KHOU reported. After a short chase, Lopez crashed into a tree and exited the vehicle with a pair of guns, KBTX reported.
TDCJ officials said Lopez fired several shots at the officers, and they returned fire, killing him, according to the television station.
No officers were struck.
The family found in the cabin was believed to have arrived at the cabin on Thursday, TDCJ spokesperson Jason Clark told The Associated Press. The five are believed to have had no link to Lopez, he said.
“I would just say Lopez is a person that does not care. He is an individual that has obviously killed, and has just killed,” Clark said at a news conference hours before Lopez was discovered. “And so I think law enforcement will take all the precautions necessary to bring him into custody and bring him to justice.”
Lopez was serving back-to-back life sentences for shooting at a Webb County, Texas sheriff’s deputy in 2004 and killing a man with a pickax in Hidalgo County, KHOU reported.