DMN Article on Irving Officer Shooting- Details about Note found at escape

[Guest guest]

Seven escaped inmates sought in Irving officer's death

12/25/2000

Associated Press

IRVING - Investigators have filed capital murder warrants against seven escaped

convicts in the fatal shooting of an Irving police officer who attempted to

break up a Christmas Eve robbery at a sporting goods store.

" This was a well-planned and executed robbery, " said Irving Police Chief Lowell

Cannaday at a Monday morning news conference.

The convicts - two of them convicted of murder - are on the loose and are

believed armed and extremely dangerous, he said.

Irving Police Officer Aubry Hawkins, 29, was fatally shot shortly after arriving

at Oshman's Sporting Goods while responding to a call. He had been with the

department since October 1999 and was married and had a 9-year-old boy.

When the prisoners escaped from the Connally Unit in Kenedy, about 65 miles from

San on Dec. 13, they left behind a note that said, " You haven't heard

the last of us yet, " said McAuliffe, inspector general of the Texas

Department of Criminal Justice.

The robbers had begun tying up and handcuffing store employees when Hawkins

approached in response to a call from an employee. Police refused to say if

there was an exchange of gunfire.

Hawkins died later at Parkland Hospital.

The robbers escaped in a Ford Explorer they stole from an employee, said Irving

police spokesman Lt. Tull. That vehicle was recovered later in Irving. It

is unknown how they escaped afterward, Tull said.

Tull said officers found some merchandise behind the building. He didn't know if

the robbers took any weapons or ammunition from the store.

Irving police have not located Hawkins' weapon, Tull said. Police stopped short

of saying the weapon was taken by the robbers because other weapons were

recovered at the scene and investigators are still sorting through them.

" It certainly will be a Christmas to remember and for all the wrong reasons, "

said Assistant Chief Jimmy Perdue.

In the prison escape, the convicts - including two men convicted for murder -

took 14 .357 Magnum pistols with 238 rounds of ammunition, a loaded automatic

rifle and a loaded shotgun that they stole from a guard tower. They also stole

jeans and work shirts from some of the prison's civilian employees.

Many of the workers said their wallets were in their pants, meaning the escaped

convicts might have gotten away with cash, credit cards and identification

documents.

The prison system identified the escaped convicts as:

- ph , 29, serving 50 years for murder in San ;

- Randy Halprin, 23, serving 30 years for child abuse in Fort Worth;

- Larry Harper, 37, serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault in El Paso;

- Jr., 39, serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault with a

deadly weapon and burglary in Dallas.

- Newbury, 38, serving 99 years for aggravated robbery in Austin;

- Rivas, 30, serving 99 years for aggravated kidnapping and burglary in

El Paso; and

- , 38, serving a life sentence for capital murder in San

.

Hawkins is only the second Irving police officer to die in the line of duty. He

is the first to be fatally shot. The last officer who died in July 1993 was

struck by a drunken driver.

E-mail this article to a friend