Slain Texas students and their grandfather remembered as ‘bright, shining stars’

Collins, 66, was visiting the household’s weekend ranch in Leon County with 4 of his seven grandchildren — brothers Waylon, 18, Carson, 16, and Hudson, 11, and their cousin, Bryson Collins, 11 — once they had been killed by a convicted assassin who had been the topic of one of many largest manhunts for an escaped inmate in Texas historical past.

Gonzalo Lopez, who escaped from a prisoner bus final month, was later killed in a shootout with officers.

“What happened to the Collins family is unspeakable,” Harris County Sheriff’s Det. David Crain, an in depth buddy of the household, advised CNN affiliate KTRK-TV, describing them as “bright, shinning stars.”

Waylon Collins had graduated from Tomball High School simply days earlier than his loss of life, KTRK reported.

“The loss of a student, for any reason, is heartbreaking, but to lose four in such a tragic way is excruciating,” Tomball Independent School District Superintendent Martha Salazar-Zamora mentioned in a letter. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of these beloved students and grandfather.”

On Friday, associates and household shed tears and shared hugs in the course of the vigil on the Tomball college district baseball discipline, the place Waylon was an umpire for the little league.

Suspect was member of a violent jail gang

Lopez was killed in a shootout with authorities late Thursday, hours after he was named the suspect within the killing of Collins and his grandsons, officers mentioned. Investigators imagine Lopez broke into the household’s residence and stole a truck.

Lopez was driving that truck when it was disabled with a spike strip within the city of Jourdanton, mentioned Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Lopez then bought right into a firefight with officers after crashing the car.

“He fired several rounds at officers and was armed with an AR-15 and a pistol,” mentioned Clark, including the firearms had been probably additionally stolen from the Collins’ ranch.

No officers had been injured.

Lopez was affiliated with a strong and violent jail gang identified as the Mexican Mafia, and had ties to San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley space, in response to the state’s public security division.

The Collins’ ranch was throughout the perimeter police had been looking following Lopez’s escape, which occurred May 12 close to Centerville as he was being taken from a facility in Gatesville to a different unit in Huntsville for a medical appointment.

Centerville is round 120 miles north of Houston, in response to officers.

Lopez was being pushed in a separate, caged space of the jail bus however broke out of his restraints, minimize via the metallic and crawled out of the underside of the cage, officers mentioned.

He attacked the driving force and pressured the bus to a cease, authorities mentioned. The two bought out of the car, and as one other officer started approaching, Lopez went again into the bus and tried to drive it away.

Officers shot on the tires and stopped the car, authorities mentioned. Lopez then left the bus and bumped into the woods off of Highway 7, in response to authorities.

Lopez was on the state’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, with authorities providing as much as $50,000 for information resulting in his seize.