Search for escaped inmate in Leon County, Texas
The search for Gonzalo Lopez is rising as legislation enforcement officers say they consider he is nonetheless hiding in western Leon County.
LEON COUNTY, Texas — It’s been virtually every week since authorities mentioned 46-year-old Gonzalo Lopez escaped custody by shedding his shackles and reducing via a metallic barrier earlier than stabbing a jail bus driver and getting away on foot after the bus crashed.
RELATED: TDCJ clarifies particulars on escape, search continues for Gonzalo Lopez on day 7
The search efforts have not diminished, they’ve grown. So many jail guards have been referred to as to assist scour the five-square-mile space in western Leon County that inmate visitation is canceled at prisons throughout Texas. Authorities mentioned they nonetheless consider Lopez is someplace close by. Highway 7 between Centerville and Marquez remained closed on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, for the primary time, we’re getting a greater concept of what these search efforts appear like.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice launched a video exhibiting lots of of officers marching via the comb acre-by-acre. There’s even a pop-up metropolis that has developed on the cow pastures round Centerville.
RELATED: New images present inmate Gonzalo Lopez hours earlier than escape
But to this point, the efforts have come up empty.
“Right now every indication we have is that he’s still out here,” TDCJ spokesperson Robert Hurst mentioned.
Also Wednesday, authorities launched images of Lopez that had been taken by surveillance cameras shortly earlier than he boarded the bus final Thursday
“I’ve had a lot of people comment that he’s got a smirk on his face so who knows what he was thinking,” Hurst mentioned.
Officials mentioned they nonetheless do not know if Lopez introduced something on the bus that might have helped him escape.
“The proper protocol is for an inmate to be searched before they get onto a transport bus. That’ll be part of our investigation — to find out if protocol was followed and what was supposed to be done,” Hurst mentioned. “That’s part of our ongoing investigation is to find out exactly how he did it and why it was not noticeable. We’re going to be turning over every possibility to find out what it was that he did and how he did it.”
RELATED: Update: Escaped inmate search in East Texas continues as new video emerges
Hurst mentioned it is nonetheless unclear if anybody from the within helped him get away.
Video proof
Video taken from a passing automotive exhibits the moments shortly after Lopez escaped.
In the space, you possibly can barely see what seems to be Lopez operating via a pasture in his white jail uniform.
A supply advised KHOU 11 News that on Tuesday officers discovered proof left behind by Lopez shortly after the bus crashed.
TDCJ mentioned it was the biggest concentrated manhunt since 2004 or 2005.
RELATED: Search for Gonzalo Lopez | Largest concentrated manhunt in practically 20 years continues in East Texas
The escape
Lopez was being transported Thursday from the Alfred Hughes Unit exterior of Gatesville in central Texas to a jail medical facility in Huntsville when he was in a position to get unfastened and stab the bus driver in the hand and chest. He drove off in the bus however did not get far thanks to a different guard who shot out its again tires with a shotgun.
Who is Lopez
Lopez is serving back-to-back life sentences for capturing 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.
RELATED: This is not the primary time escaped convict Gonzalo Lopez has efficiently gotten away from legislation enforcement
It’s not the primary time Lopez has managed to cover from legislation enforcement for an prolonged time frame. In 2004, he was in a position to run away from a police chase in South Texas and stayed hidden with the assistance of a cartel affiliate, he advised investigators on the time.
