The manhunt for a convicted killer who cut by a steel plate on a jail bus to attack and stab the motive force and escape stretched into its seventh day Wednesday, officials mentioned.
New surveillance video pictures of Gonzalo Lopez, 46, who authorities say escaped in Leon County final Thursday after he briefly bought management of the bus, have been launched by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Wednesday.
“Everything that we know right now indicates that he is still in this area,” mentioned Robert Hurst, a public information officer for the division.
Lopez, who’s serving a life sentence for homicide and tried homicide convictions, bought freed from his restraints, cut by steel and crawled beneath a cage earlier than he attacked the motive force because the bus was west of Centerville, the division mentioned.
He stabbed the motive force within the hand, they usually ended up outdoors the bus in a bodily battle, officials mentioned.
Lopez then bought again on the bus and commenced driving, and the officers shot the rear tire earlier than the bus went off the freeway, officials mentioned. Lopez bought out and fled right into a wooded space, the Criminal Justice Department mentioned.
“We don’t know what he used” to cut by the steel space and crawl into the motive force’s compartment, Hurst mentioned. He mentioned investigators are speaking to the 2 corrections officers and the opposite inmates who have been on the bus to study extra.
More than 300 regulation enforcement officers are concerned within the search space, which has a fringe of round 5 sq. miles, Hurst mentioned. The space, described as rural, with farms and ranches, is about midway between Houston and Dallas.
A $50,000 reward has additionally been provided for information main to Lopez’s seize. Anyone seeing anybody suspicious is requested to name police.
On the day he escaped, Lopez was being taken from the Gatesville jail to Huntsville for a medical appointment, officials mentioned.
Other inmates on the bus remained of their restraints, officials mentioned. Lopez was in a separate caged space for high-security inmates, the Criminal Justice Department mentioned.
A second officer was in a rear space additionally separated by a door, Hurst has mentioned. When the escape try started, the officer exited by the rear door and approached Lopez, who bought again on the bus and began driving, the division mentioned.
Lopez was convicted in 2006 of kidnapping a person and killing him with a decide in Hidalgo County in 2005, in accordance to courtroom paperwork, and he was sentenced to life in jail.
Jason Clark, the Criminal Justice Department’s chief of employees, has mentioned that Lopez was convicted of killing the person after a ransom was not paid and that he has a historical past with gangs within the U.S. and Mexico.