HOUSTON (AP) — A multitude of security lapses such as inadequate strip searches, poorly applied restraints, a staffing shortage and an environment where correctional officers became complacent created the conditions that led to the May escape of a Texas inmate, resulting in the deaths of five people, according to two reviews of the incident that were released Thursday.
After Gonzalo Lopez, 46, fled a prison bus on May 12 during an escape in which he was able to break free from his restraints and cut through a caged area of the vehicle. He remained free for three weeks. Authorities fatally shot Lopez on June 2 but not before he had killed 66-year-old Mark Collins and his four grandsons — Waylon Collins, 18; Carson Collins, 16; Hudson Collins, 11; and Bryson Collins, 11 — on the family’s ranch near Centerville, located between Dallas and Houston.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or TDCJ, conducted an internal review of the escape and also hired an outside firm to do an independent review.
