Want to give you an update?
The search for Gonzalo Lopez continues
in the area West of Centerville,
Texas, in Leon County.
He escaped yesterday afternoon at about
1:20 from a transport bus that was
headed from Gatesville to Huntsville.
He was on his way with other
inmates to a medical appointment in
Huntsville on the transport bus.
Transport bus had 16 inmates on it,
along with two correctional officers.
The other 15 inmates did not escape.
They are still in our custody.
Gonzalo Lopez is out there somewhere.
We are continuing our search for him.
The Texas Department of Criminal
Justice is now offering a $15,000
reward for information leading to the
arrest and capture of Gonzalo Lopez.
The information on how to
provide that information,
either by way of an anonymous tip will
be on our social media pages shortly.
Twitter Facebook, Instagram.
There's also a link on our website,
www.tdcj.texas.gov again,
that is a $15,000 reward stand by.
OK.
Again, $15,000 reward for information leading
to the arrest and capture of Gonzalo Lopez.
He is a very dangerous person.
He has a capital murder
conviction out of Hidalgo County.
He also has an attempted capital
murder conviction out of Webb County.
He killed a man in 2005 with a pickaxe.
After kidnapping the man and
asking for a ransom for his return.
When that was not done he
killed the man with a pickaxe.
He also had an accomplice.
We still don't know who that was.
He also fired shots at a
sheriff's deputy in Webb County.
So this man is a very dangerous person.
If you see him, do not attempt to
take him into custody by yourself.
Contact 911, have local law enforcement,
deal with him.
He is someone not to be reckoned
with by yourself.
Any questions,
any indication at all that he may have had?
It's an ongoing investigation,
can't answer that right now.
Now let me tell you about what
I told some folks this morning.
You weren't here.
So let me go ahead and tell you about
what happened yesterday yesterday as
the bus was heading eastbound on Hwy 7
from Gatesville to here in Centerville,
about a mile and a half West of here.
Somehow he was able to gain access into
the driver's compartment of the bus.
He began struggling fighting with the driver,
the correctional officer of the bus.
They got into a fight,
the officer smartly and heroically pulled
the bus over to the side of the road.
When the bus got over to the
side of the road,
he and the inmate got out of the
bus and continued to struggle and
fight each other outside of the bus.
There was another officer that was in
the back of the bus with the shotgun.
That officer stand by just a minute.
I'm sorry.
That officer got out of the back of
the bus through the emergency door,
fired two shots into the rear
tires of the bus to disable it.
During that incident, during that moment,
the inmate got back on the bus.
The officer that he had been struggling with,
he had tried to get his service
weapon on his side.
He was able to get it off of his.
He was able to get the belt off of his waist,
but he did not get the weapon
out of the holster.
He didn't understand how to get
it out of what we call a 3 point.
He didn't understand how to get it out.
Of the three point we have the
gun in our possession.
He never had possession of the gun
as he fled from the scene, but.
He got back behind the wheel of the bus,
continued driving the bus about
another mile down the road with
the flattened back tires.
He then lost control of the bus,
went off of the side of the road
about a mile and a half West of here.
That's when the officers caught up
with him or caught up to the bus.
They ran down the road.
And they fired shots at him as he
was running across the cow pasture.
We don't think he got hit.
They fired both their service weapons
and a shotgun in his direction as he was
headed northbound through the cow pasture.
He's last we saw him.
He was in all white garb,
white shirt, white pants.
Don't know if he's still
dressed like that or not.
He's now been out there for almost 24 hours.
This happened at 120 yesterday afternoon.
So again, $15,000 reward now being
offered for the arrest for any
information leading to the arrest
and capture of Gonzalo Lopez.
Any other questions?
Got to the front of the bus.
Yes, ma'am, there is a door.
There's a door that separates the
seated area for the inmates from the
compartment where the officer is seated.
It's a door with some wire
mesh around on this side.
Somehow we don't know yet how that happened.
He got up underneath.
He used some type of a device to
cut out the bottom of that door.
He got down underneath the door.
He crawled underneath the door and
when he got it when he got through
that opening that he cut open,
that's when he started struggling
with the officer.
Let me give you the name of the two officers.
Officer Randy Smith was the
driver of the bus.
He was the one that suffered a
puncture wound to his hand when
he got in a fight with the inmate.
The inmate used something to stab him.
We don't know what that was just yet.
He stabbed him in the hand.
Officer Smith later discovered
when he got home that he had also
gotten punctured in the chest.
How how? He didn't know that.
We still don't know but these are non
life threatening injuries to Officer Smith.
The other officer officer Jimmy Brininger,
the officer that was in the back
with the shotgun. He was not hurt.
He was the one that fired the two shots
into the rear wheels of the bus to
disable it so that he couldn't go further.
The other inmates stayed on the bus.
They were not able to get out
of their restraints somehow.
Again,
we don't know how it's still
under investigation.
We don't know how he got out of his
restraints to get up underneath that door
and get into the driver's compartment.
Correct? And not without.
Yes.
Yes, it is a secured door.
There is a key that is used to open that,
but he didn't use a key to open that door.
He he used some type of device.
We don't know what some type of device
to cut out the bottom of the door.
Is an opening I'll show you with my
hands is an opening maybe about that.
Watch maybe about that wide maybe about that
high and he crawled underneath that on,
you know from the floor up he crawled
underneath that and then he got up
there with the driver of the bus was.
Yes yes yes metal.
He's seated, he's seated and he
didn't see what we don't believe.
He saw what was going on either.
This is still part of our
ongoing investigation.
Both officers are being very cooperative
and talking about what happened.
Let me tell you this,
these two officers acted very
heroically for what they dealt
with and how they dealt with it.
The officer that fired the shots with his
shotgun into the rear wheels of the bus.
That was smart thinking on his part
to do that to disable that bus,
had he not done that,
there's no telling where we
might have this bus right now.
With 15 or 16 inmates on it somewhere,
here you know.
Who knows where here in East Texas,
but you know,
we don't know what could have happened.
Officer Brinegar was very smart to fire
those shots into the rear wheels of that bus.
Officer Smith.
Again,
he acted heroically as well to make
sure that Lopez did not get his gun.
So both officers should be
commended for their heroic actions.
Regular. The advice to the public
right now is, if at all possible,
stay in your homes and if you
see this guy, do not engage him.
Call 911 immediately.
Let us know where you saw him or if you see
any kind of suspicious activity, call 911.
Contact your local law enforcement,
have them deal with the situation.
Don't try and do it on your own again.
He's got a life sentence for a capital
murder where he killed a man with a pickaxe.
And he's also got an attempted
capital murder conviction for
shooting a gun at a police officer.
So he's somebody that is very dangerous.
Thank you, Claire.
Yes, we've got about 300 / 300 law
enforcement officials out here.
Let me tell you, we do have the FBI that
is now assisting us in the investigation.
Also got the US Marshals
service of his assisting.
We've got various law enforcement
agencies around in the area.
We've got Leon County Sheriff's Department.
We've got Jewett Police Department.
Let me come in the Jewett,
the Jewett Police Department was the
first law enforcement agency on the
scene when the bus crashed yesterday.
They were the ones that that
were first on the scene.
The officer was driving down the road,
saw what had happened and he
immediately began helping Officer
Brian Ager and Officer Smith.
Uh, so we've got Department
of Public safety here.
You can see them behind me with
the Roadblock Hwy 7 between
Centerville and Marquez is shut down.
If anybody is planning on driving
down Hwy 7 from Centerville,
westbound make another plan.
You're not going to get through there.
Also, Hwy.
79 that runs from Marquez up to Buffalo.
We are asking the public to please not
use that roadway as well because that's
part of our perimeter Interstate 45.
We can't really do anything about it.
It's a major.
Thorofare, but if anybody sees
anything suspicious along I-45,
please let us know.
So we've got a triangular area that is
set up Centerville westbound on Hwy.
7 NE on Hwy 79 up to Buffalo Buffalo
backed down to Centerville on I-45.
Yeah.
American.
You talking about our trucks? Our trucks
are part of the investigation.
They're going out to the perimeter.
Kind of. Yeah, shifts change. Yeah yeah. And
as you as you probably notice,
the commercial traffic,
a lot of trucks use this road
and DPS blockade back here.
They're turning them around.
Any other questions?
Again, we want to emphasize
there is now a $15,000 reward
for information leading to.
The arrest and capture of Gonzalo Lopez.
The information will be posted.
Excuse me, the information will be
posted shortly on our social media pages,
Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook as well as on our website
www.tdcj.texas.gov.
$15,000 reward we want to get this guy.
Before he does anything to anybody else.