A grandfather and his four grandchildren, who were vacationing on their ranch in Leon County, Texas, were shot to death by Gonzalo Artemio López during his 22-day escape from a Texas prison where he was serving a life sentence for murder.
"We are beyond devastated," wrote a relative on the social network Facebook, according to the Houston Chronicle newspaper.
The children were between 11 and 18 years old, according to this testimony, and the oldest had just graduated from school.
"It's impossible to bear," added the man's brother-in-law in his post.
The identity of the victims has not been made official by the authorities or the press.
The murdered family lived in Tomball, a suburb of Houston, but had moved to their ranch in Centerville, where they were killed by the escaped prisoner, who took an AR-15 assault rifle from them and then attacked police when he was pursued this Thursday night before finally being shot down by officers.
The children studied in the Tomball school district, according to a statement from its superintendent, Martha Salazar-Zamora, who lamented that her life "was taken by a fugitive."
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Lopez, 46, was an inmate at the Gatesville prison but escaped during a bus ride to Huntsville for a medical visit.
The search for him was billed as "one of the largest, if not the largest, in recent history" in Texas, "according to Robert Hurst, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which had offered a $50,000 reward for tips to achieve his capture.
López had been convicted of killing a man in 2006 on the Texas-Mexico border.
He received another life sentence in addition to attempted murder in Webb County in 2007.
According to the police reconstruction, López was in a car reported missing.
Police officers in Jourdanton, Texas, stopped the car by placing spikes on the road.
The criminal crashed the vehicle into a tree and ran off firing an AR-15 rifle and handgun before being killed.
No officers were injured.
"We breathe a sigh of relief because Lopez won't be able to hurt anyone else," Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told a news conference.
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Lopez escaped on May 12 while being transported by bus in Leon County, a rural area between Dallas and Houston.
According to authorities, he slipped out of the handcuffs and stabbed the driver.
No other inmates took advantage of the moment to escape, according to police.
The family was killed in a ranch that had been previously searched by the authorities because it was in an area close to where the escape occurred.
According to Clark, it's not clear if Lopez was inside the house where he killed the five people or if he was outside waiting for someone to arrive.
He did indicate that it is probable that the weapons were found in the house itself.
Tattoos of escaped prisoner Gonzalo López. Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Texas authorities explained that López was linked to the Mexican mob and had been included in the list of the 10 most wanted fugitives in the state.
