Texas suspends inmate transportation while it reviews convict’s escape

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The Texas Department of Criminal Justice will quickly cease transporting most inmates while it investigates how a convicted assassin escaped from a jail bus final month.

TDCJ will conduct “a comprehensive review of its transportation procedures,” based on a press release from the company. During the evaluation, transports like transfers between models to regulate the inmate inhabitants shall be suspended. If shifting an inmate is critical to launch them or for an emergency medical appointment while the evaluation is being performed, they are going to be transported with further safety in place. TDCJ spokesperson Robert Hurst mentioned normally two officers are on a bus with inmates when they’re transported, however three will now be on board.

Hurst mentioned he was “not aware of a suspension like this being done before.” TDCJ didn’t say how lengthy the evaluation course of will take.

The evaluation comes after Gonzalo Lopez, 46, who was serving two life sentences, escaped May 12. He was being taken from the Alfred Hughes Unit close to Gatesville to a medical appointment in Huntsville when he was someway in a position to take away his handcuffs, reduce via a metallic door and assault the bus driver, inflicting the automobile to cease. Lopez fled right into a wooded space and was on the lam for 3 weeks.

Authorities say Lopez killed one man and his 4 grandchildren in Leon County while on the unfastened. Lopez was apprehended and shot by legislation enforcement on June 2 in Jourdanton, over 200 miles from the place Lopez was initially housed in Gatesville, and 250 miles from the place the victims died.

As reported by The Washington Post, authorities imagine Lopez killed Mark Collins, 66, and his 4 grandchildren, Waylon, 18; Carson, 16; Hudson, 11; and Bryson, 11. The Collins household launched a press release on Facebook through their pastor, asking for privateness right now and noting, “These precious people who loved and were loved by so many will never be forgotten.”

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