Police have linked a convicted murderer who escaped from a Texas correction van and murdered the driver to the murders of a Centerville, Texas man and his four grandsons, aged 11 to 18, before taking the man’s assault rifle and handgun, USA Today reports.
Gonzalo Lopez was killed in a Thursday shootout with law enforcement officers after escaping from a Texas Department of Criminal Justice van that had one door on May 12th. Lopez overpowered the guard/driver after getting free from his restraints and breaking out of a caged area on the van. The van was transporting Lopez and 15 other prisoners between Dallas and Houston.
Lopez was on the loose for three weeks, as Texas officials searched for him throughout central Texas. An enforcer for the Mexican Mafia, Lopez was convicted of murder and attempted murder. In 2005, he murdered a man who owed the La Mana drug cartel $40,000, and he then engaged in a shootout with law enforcement officials before being captured and convicted.
On Thursday, police conducting a welfare check at the family ranch found the bodies of 66-year-old Mark Collins, and his four grandsons: Waylon Collins, 18; Carson Collins, 16; Hudson Collins, 11; and Bryson Collins, 11; Bryson was a cousin to the other boys, who were brothers.
Police determined linked Lopez to the killings by the AR-15 Lopez stole from the Collins ranch. Lopez used the assault rifle and the handgun taken from the Collins ranch in the fatal gunfight against officers.