Aubrey Hawkins murder case

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The murder of Officer Aubrey Hawkins Wright occurred at Christmas 2000 in Texas Irving . The 29-year-old officer was shot dead by the escaped felons " Texas Seven ", who just committed a robbery. After the largest manhunt in Texan history, six of the perpetrators were sentenced to death and the seventh committed suicide.

Aubrey Hawkins

Aubrey Wright Hawkins was born on February 23, 1971 in Dallas . While still in high school, he joined the Explorer Scouts program, where he learned about Texas law and police procedures. He then worked as an emergency paramedic and security guard, before he worked full-time as an officer at the Kaufman Police Department from 1994 and founded a K-9 unit there. He then served with the Tarrant County Hospital District Police Department. From October 1999, he served with the Irving Police Department. He lived in Watauga , was married and had one son.

assassination

On Sunday, December 24, 2000, seven armed criminals raided Road Oshman's Sporting Goods store in Irving, near Dallas , on State Highway 183 and the Belt Line. The men had broken out of a maximum security prison near San Antonio eleven days earlier and urgently needed money to continue their escape. One of the gunmen was seen by a friend of a clerk in the parking lot. This then called the police.

The first officer to be notified was Officer Aubrey Hawkins at 6:25 p.m. local time, who was having a Christmas dinner with his family in a restaurant. He should investigate a suspicious situation at Oshman's. Less than five minutes later, he reached the reported address. At this point the robbery was already in full swing and the perpetrators were in the process of handcuffing the employees and stowing the loot.

Aubrey Hawkins was shot under fire from close range while in his patrol car and was believed to be killed instantly. Later investigation and the autopsy revealed that Hawkins was fired at from three directions and five different weapons. He had no chance to defend himself and suffered six head shots, one shot in the back and four hits in the left arm, and two projectiles were removed from his protective vest. The perpetrators then dragged Hawkins out of his official vehicle and rolled over him with their getaway car. Hawkins was found by a colleague shortly thereafter and taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas, where he was pronounced dead.

He was buried at the Oak Grove Memorial Gardens in Irving, attended by over 1,000 people .

Search and arrest of the perpetrators

The manhunt for the perpetrators became the largest in Texan history. The reward for information to the arrest was at 500,000 $ increased. They were searched for nationwide on America's Most Wanted . On January 22nd, four of the seven perpetrators were arrested near Colorado Springs following a tip from the local population . A fifth shot himself in a motor home. The other two fugitives were caught in a hotel two days later. While looking for these two perpetrators, Trooper Jason Manspeaker of the Colorado State Patrol was killed in a traffic accident.

Convictions

George Rivas was considered to be the initiator of the outbreak and the attack on Oshman's as well as the leader during the escape. He fired the first shots at Aubrey Hawkins and was behind the wheel of the getaway car that had run over Officer Hawkins. He was found guilty of the murder of Aubrey Hawkins by a jury in August 2001 and sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Appeals upheld the verdict and the death penalty in June 2004.

The other five defendants Michael Rodriguez, Donald Newbury, Patrick Murphy, Joseph Garcia, and Randy Halprin also received the death penalty for their involvement in the murder. It was the first time in US justice history since the death penalty was reinstated that six people were sentenced to death for the same murder.

The first execution was on August 14, 2008 in the Huntsville Unit of Michael Rodriguez, convicted of the Hawkins murder in May 2002 and sentenced to death. The appellate court upheld the sentence and the verdict in March 2006. Rodriguez was serving a life sentence for a contract killing by the time he broke out.

On February 29, 2012, George Rivas was also executed by lethal injection in Huntsville. On February 4, 2015, Donald Newbury was executed. Joseph Garcia was executed on December 4, 2018. Patrick Murphy and Randy Halprin are awaiting execution on Texas Death Row.

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