(Reuters) – A person who escaped from a Texas jail final month died in a shootout with police hours after changing into the prime suspect within the homicide of a Houston household of 5 who have been discovered useless at their weekend cabin, a state prisons spokesperson mentioned.

Cops in Jourdanton, a small city south of San Antonio, on Thursday noticed Gonzalo Lopez, 46, in a pickup truck he allegedly stole from the household and disabled it with spike strips.

Officers exchanged gunfire with Lopez, who was armed with an AR-15 assault-style rifle and a pistol, Jason Clark, a spokesperson for the Texas Division of Legal Justice, mentioned at a information briefing on Thursday night.

“I’ll let you know that we’re respiratory a sigh of aid that Lopez will be unable to harm anybody else,” Clark mentioned, noting that no officers have been injured in the course of the shootout.

Earlier within the day, authorities found a household of two adults and three youngsters useless of their weekend house in Centerville and their truck lacking. The victims weren’t additional recognized.

Along with the truck, different proof linked Lopez to the murders, mentioned Clark, who didn’t give particulars.

“There may be some data for us to result in imagine that Gonzalo Lopez is the person who broke into that residence and dedicated these murders,” Clark mentioned.

Texas authorities had been conducting a manhunt for Lopez since Could 12 when he escaped a jail bus after stabbing a corrections officer, hijacking the automobile full of different inmates and fleeing when it crashed.

Lopez, who was serving a life sentence for the 2005 homicide and tried homicide of a police officer, made his escape in Leon County, about 110 miles (177 km) north of Houston.