Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for the Texas Rangers to conduct an independent investigation on Tuesday into how a convicted killer was able to break free from a prison transport bus and evade capture for three weeks, according to Austin and Houston-based media outlets.
Forty-six-year-old Gonzalo Lopez escaped from a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) bus on May 12 while it was passing through Leon County, which is about 120 miles north of Houston.
Authorities implicate Lopez in the deaths of 66-year-old Mark Collins and his four grandsons – siblings Waylon Collins, 18; Carson Collins, 16; and Hudson Collins, 11; and the boys’ 11-year-old paternal cousin, Bryson Collins.
The family of five was found dead at their ranch in Centerville.
Authorities eventually tracked Lopez down to outside San Antonio and shot him to death.
According to Austin ABC affiliate KVUE, Patrick, a Republican, said that an investigation into the escape and subsequent manhunt isn’t to point fingers.
“This is a crime that was preventable on several levels and should never have happened,” the lieutenant governor said, KVUE reported. “My request for investigation is not about affixing blame, but rather to ensure TDCJ procedures and protocols are adequate and always followed. There must be accountability.”
Patrick hopes an investigation will shed light on such things as how the prisoner was able to remove his restraints and how he stayed out of sight for almost a month despite hundreds of law enforcement, bloodhounds and air patrols searching for him, the station reported.
“We have a duty to all Texans to ensure this never happens to any family again,” he said, according to KVUE.
Patrick, who was in attendance at the Collins’ funerals in Houston on Saturday, said with more than 100,000 inmates within TDCJ and a workforce of thousands of employees, apparently “somewhere down the line mistakes were made,” Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reported.
According to KPRC, the lieutenant governor admired the surviving relatives of the deceased for their “strong” Christian faith.
“Their bold and remarkable testimony about their faith, despite this unimaginable devastation to their family, was amazing and inspiring to the 4,000 people who attended the funeral,” Patrick said, the station reported.
