Police: Escaped Texas murderer dies in shootout

A convicted murderer on the run since escaping a prison bus after stabbing its driver last month was fatally shot by law enforcement late Thursday after he killed a family of five and stole their truck from a rural weekend cabin, a Texas prison system spokesman said.

Gonzalo Lopez, 46, was killed about 10:30 p.m. Thursday in Jourdanton, Texas, about 35 miles south of San Antonio, said Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“Law enforcement in Atascosa County located the stolen vehicle, disabled it with spike strips, and gunfire ensued,” Mr. Clark said in a statement. No officers were injured, he said.

Lopez was killed in an exchange of gunfire about 220 miles southwest of Centerville, Texas, where Mr. Clark earlier said Lopez had killed a Houston family of five at their cabin and stole their pickup truck.

The family — one adult and four minors — was thought to have arrived Thursday morning at the cabin, which they owned, Mr. Clark said. The five are believed to have been killed Thursday afternoon and had no link to Lopez, he said.

Officers, making a welfare check for relatives, went to the family’s cabin along Texas Route 7 west of Centerville about 6 p.m. Thursday and found the bodies. Identities were not released, but gone was their white pickup truck, Mr. Clark said. Lopez was believed to have driven the truck from the search area.

Lopez, a former member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang with ties to South Texas, had been the subject of an intensive search since his May 12 escape from the prison bus.