HOUSTON (AP) — Residents of the small Texas town of Centerville remained vigilant for three weeks while authorities searched for a murderer who escaped a prison bus and stabbed and wounded the driver last month near their rural community.
The search for 46-year-old Gonzalo Lopez ended late Thursday night when he was killed in a shootout with officers about 220 miles away in Atascosa County, south of San Antonio. But just hours earlier, authorities discovered that Lopez had killed a man and his four grandsons at their ranch near Centerville.
Family members and residents of the small community say they are devastated by the killings. Lopez had a long violent history that included killing for Mexican drug cartels.
