Texas police fatally shoot escaped convict after he killed family of five

Gonzalo Lopez had been on the run since May 12 and died in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement officers

The Chevy pickup truck reportedly taken from a family by escaped prisoner Gonzalo Lopez. AP

A convicted murderer on the run since escaping a prison bus last month after stabbing its driver month was fatally shot by police late on Thursday after he killed a family of five and stole their truck from a rural weekend cabin, a Texas prison spokesman said.

Gonzalo Lopez was killed about 10.30pm in Jourdanton, Texas, about 55 kilometres south of San Antonio, said Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"Law enforcement in Atascosa County located the stolen vehicle, disabled it with spike strips, and gunfire ensued," Mr Clark said. No officers were injured, he said.

Lopez was killed in an exchange of gunfire 354km south-west of Centerville, Texas, where Mr Clark earlier said Lopez had killed a Houston family of five at their cabin and stole their pickup truck.

Lopez was thought to be hiding in the vicinity of the cabin when officers received a call from someone concerned after not hearing from an elderly relative, Mr Clark said.

Officers went to the family's cabin along Texas Route 7 west of Centerville about 6pm on Thursday and found the bodies of one adult and four minors.

Lopez was believed to have driven the truck from the search area, Mr Clark said. Lopez was a former member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang and had ties to south Texas, he said.

The family was thought to have arrived at the cabin, which they owned, on Thursday morning, Mr Clark said. The five are believed to have been killed on Thursday afternoon and had no link to Lopez, he said.

Lopez had been the subject of an intensive search since his May 12 escape from the prison bus.

He was being transported in a caged area of the bus from a prison in Gatesville, more than 160 kilometres west of the place where he escaped, to one in Huntsville for a medical appointment when he escaped in Leon County, a rural area between Dallas and Houston, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

The department said Lopez somehow freed himself from his hand and leg restraints, cut through the expanded metal of the cage and crawled from the bottom. He then attacked the driver, who stopped the bus and got into an altercation with Lopez, and they both eventually got off the bus.

A second officer at the rear of the bus then got off and approached Lopez, who got back on the bus and started driving down the road, the department said.

The officers fired at Lopez and disabled the bus by shooting the rear tire, the department said. The bus then travelled a short distance before leaving the roadway, where Lopez got out and ran into the woods.

At some point during the escape, Lopez stabbed the driver, whose wounds were not life-threatening, the department said.

Lopez was serving a life prison sentence for a 2006 conviction for the murder of a man along the Texas-Mexico border.