Search for Gonzalo Lopez | Largest concentrated manhunt in nearly 20 years continues in East Texas

HOUSTON — The biggest manhunt in current Texas Division of Felony Justice historical past was nonetheless happening in East Texas on Sunday.

A TDCJ spokesperson stated the seek for Gonzalo Lopez is the most important concentrated manhunt since 2004 or 2005.

Editor’s be aware: The movies hooked up to this text are from reviews on Saturday, Could 14, 2022.

Lopez, 46, stabbed a guard within the hand and ran from a crashed jail bus on Thursday in Leon County.

‘Keep in your properties’: $50,000 reward for ‘very harmful’ escaped killer nonetheless on the unfastened in East Texas

Lopez was being transported Thursday from the Alfred Hughes Unit outdoors of Gatesville in central Texas to a jail medical facility in Huntsville when he was capable of get unfastened and stab the bus driver within the hand and chest. He drove off within the bus however did not get far thanks to a different guard who shot out its again tires with a shotgun.

The state freeway the place the TDCJ bush crashed remained closed over the weekend and authorities continued to induce individuals to avoid the world close to Centerville, which is about 115 miles north of Houston.

Lopez is serving back-to-back life sentences for taking pictures at a Webb County, Texas sheriff’s deputy in 2004 and killing a person with a pickax in Hidalgo County after holding him ransom on a drug debt.

This is not the primary time escaped convict Gonzalo Lopez has efficiently gotten away from regulation enforcement

It is not the primary time Lopez has managed to cover from regulation enforcement for an prolonged time period. In 2004, he was capable of run away from a police chase in South Texas and stayed hidden with the assistance of a cartel affiliate, he instructed investigators on the time.

On Sunday, officers stated they assume Lopez remains to be hiding out within the space west of Centerville.

‘No cause to imagine he has left the world.’ Seek for escaped Texas inmate continues

Whereas there have not been any sightings of Lopez, investigators stated there is not any proof that he has left the world.

“We’ve got no cause to imagine he has left the world, there isn’t a proof to assist that, presently,” Leon County Sheriff’s Workplace representatives stated Saturday in a social media publish.

Authorities stated they’re focused on looking out a triangular space from Freeway 7 westbound to Freeway 320 and North Freeway 320 to Freeway 319, which runs again to Centerville and I-45. The search space spans greater than 100 sq. miles of East Texas countryside between Centerville, the city of Marquez to the west, and Buffalo to the north.

Investigators stated they’ve investigated just a few false alarms.

TDCJ officers stated there are officers on horseback in addition to Okay-9 models on the search scene.

The search will proceed till Lopez is taken into custody.

“We can’t thank sufficient the state, regional and native regulation enforcement companies who’re aiding the Texas Division of Felony Justice in our seek for Gonzalo Lopez,” TDCJ Govt Director Bryan Collier stated. “With these assets, we’re assured that we are going to find him and have him again in our custody.”