SAN MARCOS, Texas (CNN) -- The search for seven escaped
suspected in the Christmas Eve shooting death of an
Irving police officer intensified on Friday after two suspects were
spotted in San Marcos on Thursday, authorities said.
Police were called to a San Marcos branch of Bank of America
at 12:45 p.m. Thursday after a clerk reported a man who
wanted to open a new account was acting suspicious, a
statement from the San Marcos Police Department said.
The clerk told officers the man was acting oddly and made
bank employees nervous, so the clerk called authorities.
San Marcos Police Chief Steve Griffith told CNN that bank
employees identified George Rivas and Michael Rodriguez from
photographs.
"As of tonight, we have some additional pictures from the
Texas prison system and we are able to confirm that two of
the individuals... two of the escapees were at our bank,"
Griffith said in a telephone interview. The pictures were
shown to a bank teller and another witness, who positively
identified Rivas and Rodriguez.
Griffith said he didn't know where the men were now. "That's
a good question," he said.
Texas authorities said it is very unusual for escaped inmates
to elude capture for so long. Most remain free for only a few
hours. Over the past 16 years, 275 inmates have escaped from Texas
correctional facilities and all but one were recaptured.
Several men fled in three cars
Thursday's encounter began when a witness outside the bank saw seven or eight people standing around three cars in the parking lot and said the man inside the bank was with these people. They all got into the three cars and headed away from the downtown area toward Interstate 35, according to the
police department's statement.
That highway leads south to San Antonio, and north to Dallas-Fort Worth. San Marcos is about 45 miles northeast of San Antonio.
Earlier this week, the escapees were thought to be in the Dallas area, authorities said. A report by a tipster that the convicts were in Colorado has not been confirmed.
Descriptions of the cars spotted at the bank were not immediately available. However, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is searching for a Toyota Camry and a Honda Accord they believe could have been used recently by the escapees.
Both are late model, 4-door cars. One is silver and the other, black, but authorities aren't sure which color matches each model.
The seven men have eluded authorities since their escape from the Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas, more than three weeks ago.
Officer Aubrey Hawkins, 29, was shot Christmas Eve when he and several other officers responded to a call from an employee at an Oshman's sporting goods store.
Authorities said Hawkins entered the rear of the building and
apparently confronted the departing suspects, who were
identified by an eyewitness as the seven prison convicts.
The suspects are seven heavily-armed fugitives who escaped
December 13. Two of the escapees were serving time for murder
convictions.
Fugitives believed to have 39 guns
During their recent escape, the fugitives stole 14 .357-
caliber Magnum pistols with 238 bullets, a loaded
semiautomatic rifle and a loaded shotgun from the prison
guard tower, prison officials said.
At the sporting good store they took at least 25 more
semiautomatic guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, winter
clothing and at least $70,000, the San Antonio Express-News
reported.
The convicts involved in the prison escape were identified
as:
• Joseph Garcia, 29, who was serving 50 years for murder in
San Antonio.
• Randy Halprin, 23, who was serving 30 years for child abuse
in Fort Worth.
• Larry Harper, 37, who was serving 50 years for aggravated
sexual assault after raping three women in 1993 and 1994 in
El Paso.
• Patrick Murphy, Jr., 39, who was serving 50 years for
aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon and burglary
in Dallas.
• Donald Newbury, 38, who was serving 99 years for aggravated
robbery at an Austin hotel in 1997.
• Rivas, 30, who was serving 99 years for aggravated
kidnapping and burglary in El Paso. In 1993 he robbed an
Oshman's in El Paso and was arrested while robbing a Toys "R"
Us store in the same city, said El Paso police.
• Rodriguez, 38, who was serving a life prison term for
capital murder in San Antonio after being convicted of paying
another man $2,000 to kill his wife so that he could collect
$150,000 in life insurance.
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