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'Texas 7' Chronology

Below is a timeline of the Texas prison escape:

Dec. 13, 2000: Seven convicts escape from Connally Unit in Kenedy, southeast of San Antonio, by overpowering civilian workers and prison employees. Flee with stolen clothing, pickup truck and 16 guns.

Dec. 15, 2000: Two fugitives suspected of stealing police radio scanners from suburban Houston Radio Shack.

Dec. 24, 2000: Convicts suspected of robbing sports store in Irving, near Dallas, and killing police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. The robbers escape with $70,000 in cash and checks, 25 weapons and clothing.
Jan. 3: U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms charges the escapees with weapons violations. Autopsy shows that Hawkins was shot 11 times and was run over by a vehicle.

Jan. 4: FBI agents in the Dallas area file separate federal charges of unlawful flight to avoid federal prosecution for capital murder, broadening the manhunt nationwide.

Jan. 11: The Texas Board of Criminal Justice releases review of the escape, says prison staff missed critical opportunities to prevent the escape by ignoring a fire alarm, not reporting unsupervised inmates and not demanding proper identification from inmates.

Jan. 19: Texas officials demote warden and suspend three other prison workers.

Jan. 22: Four escapees arrested in Woodland Park, Colo. One inmate commits suicide. Inmates Patrick Murphy and Donald Newbury are said to have left area in a brown or red van.

Jan. 23: Police in Colorado Springs search a motel after the van believed to have been used by Murphy and Newbury is found in the motel's parking lot. The inmates are not spotted.

Jan. 24: Two remaining inmates captured by police. Murphy and Newbury surrender peacefully after a pre-dawn round of negotiations.

©MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report

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