Gonzalo Lopez: Texas prison escape kills grandfather, four grandsons

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A Texas family has been “wiped out” after a violent prison escapee murdered a grandfather and his four grandsons before a shootout with police.

A Texas family has been “wiped out” after a violent prison escapee murdered a grandfather and his four grandsons.

A mobile phone video captured the moment Texas inmate Gonzalo Lopez crashed a prison transfer bus and fled into the woods, sparking an intense three-week manhunt that came to a bloody end on Thursday when the escapee was shot dead by cops.

Lopez, 46, who had been on the lam since hijacking the prison bus May 12, was cornered in Jourdanton, Texas, and killed in a police shootout at around 10.30pm, the NY Post reports.

Officers gunned down the wanted fugitive just hours after he allegedly murdered a grandfather and his four grandchildren — then stole a ute truck to carry on with his escape.

Lopez, a convicted murderer serving two life sentences, was being taken to a medical appointment on board a prison bus with 16 other inmates when he somehow managed to free himself from restraints, took control of the bus, crashed it and then fled on foot.

Melanie Tieperman was driving with her son in Leon County, Texas, when she came upon the crash scene. A phone recording that the woman shared with news channel KAGS-TV appears to show Lopez running into the nearby woods.

“Yo, we saw the inmate! What the heck?” Ms Tieperman’s son, Braxton, exclaims, as a small figure is seen lurking among the trees in the distance.

The boy later observes Lopez running towards a nearby house.

“Whoever is in that house might want to be careful,” he remarks.

Robert Hurst, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, had said Lopez had a history of escaping custody.

“He’s crafty,” Mr Hurst told CBS News. “He’s done this before down in South Texas in Webb County. He hid out for almost nine days.”

Mr Hurst was unable to share any additional information about Lopez’s previous escape and referred The Post’s inquiries to authorities in the local County, where no one was immediately available to comment Friday morning.

Before Lopez’s killing, he had been named the prime suspect in the murders of an adult and four children inside a weekend cabin, about 400 kilometres from where police ultimately found him.

The grandfather was identified as Mark Collins, 66, according to Fox 26 Houston.

The four deceased children have been identified as Waylon Collins, 18, Carson Collins, 16, Hudson Collins, 11, and Bryson Collins, 11.

They were students in the Tomball school district, about 53 kilometres northwest of Houston. The Tomball Independent School District confirmed the students and their grandfather were killed in a message to the community on Friday.

“It is with sadness and a heavy heart that I share the devastating news of a tragedy that has affected our Tomball community,” the letter opened.

“The lives of four Tomball SD students and their grandfather were taken from us on Thursday by the escaped Texas fugitive near Centerville. The loss of a student, for any reason, is heartbreaking, but to lose four in such a tragic way is excruciating, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of these beloved students and grandfather.”

The family had arrived on Thursday morning in rural Centerville, an hour and a half drive from Tomball, authorities said.

Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said it is believed the family was killed just hours after they arrived.

The bodies were discovered around 6pm by officers performing a welfare check at the request of a concerned relative.

The slain victims had no ties to Lopez, who was a former member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, according to authorities.

Neighbours told NewsNation the family would never have been at the house if they were warned Lopez was still in the area.

A person close to the family told NewsNation reporter Brian Entin, “This is now a family wiped out.”

After more than three weeks on the loose, Lopez ran out of luck when cops observed him driving a white Chevrolet Silverado that had been stolen from the quintuple murder scene.

Deputies tracked down the ute truck and disabled it with spike strips, causing it to crash into a tree.

Lopez emerged from the wrecked vehicle and opened fire at pursuing officers, who returned fire, killing the fugitive, said Mr Clark. The 46-year-old had in his possession a handgun and a rifle.

On May 12, Lopez was being transported to a prison medical facility in a caged area of the prison bus when he broke free from his restraints, cut through the expanded metal of the cage and crawled from the bottom.

He then stabbed 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 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 travelled a short distance before leaving the roadway, where Lopez got out and fled into the woods.

Lopez was serving back-to-back life sentences for shooting a sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop in 2004, and slaughtering a man with a pickaxe after holding him for a ransom over $US55,000 on a drug debt in 2005.

Had he lived, Lopez would have been up for parole for the first time only in April 2045.

— with Fox News

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission

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