CENTERVILLE, Texas — Authorities said a Texas inmate who was serving a life sentence for murder when he escaped from a transport bus last week got out of his restraints and a caged area before stabbing the driver.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Wednesday that Gonzalo Lopez, 46, was still on the run. Lopez was being transported May 12 to a medical appointment in a caged area of the bus. The department said Lopez freed himself from his hand and leg restraints, cut through the metal of the cage and crawled out through the bottom. Officials say he then attacked the driver.
Two correctional officers were on the bus – Officer Jimmy Renegar and Officer Randy Smith.
TDCJ said Lopez assaulted and stabbed Smith in the left hand and chest with an unknown object while he was driving the bus. During the struggle that followed, the bus crashed, and Lopez ran off. The officer’s injuries were not life-threatening.
Officers fired shots from a shotgun – not knowing whether Lopez was hit. Sixteen prisoners were aboard the bus, but no one else escaped, the department said.
Lopez was convicted in 2006 of killing a man along the Texas-Mexico border. His escape was in Leon County – between Dallas and Houston. Law enforcement agencies have searched by aircraft, horseback and with canine teams.
There is $50,000 reward for information leading to Lopez’s capture.
