Police, state troopers and federal agents continued to work around the clock tracking seven prison escapees suspected of fatally shooting a police officer during a Christmas Eve holdup.
The officer, Aubrey Hawkins, may have wounded one of the escapees during a gunfight that left his patrol car riddled with bullet holes, Irving police spokesman David Tull said.
Police were pursuing leads but had no fix on the inmates, he said.
'We don't know if they're still in the area ... but we're chasing leads all over the state,' Tull said.
The seven inmates broke out of the Connally Unit in Kenedy on Dec. 13 after stealing clothes from civilian employees, bluffing their way through a gate and overpowering a guard.
They stole 14 pistols, a rifle and a shotgun, authorities said. A woman may have helped them, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said.
Witnesses identified two of the escapees as the culprits in a Dec. 15 robbery of a Radio Shack in Pearland, police said. Pearland is southwest of Houston in Brazoria County.
Nine days later, the escapees are suspected of binding victims and stealing a store employee's vehicle during the holdup Christmas Eve at Oshman's Super Sports USA in Irving, authorities said.
The robbers stole an undisclosed amount of cash and several guns.
Authorities have declined to say how many weapons or what kind.
Since Christmas Day, a task force made up of Irving police, FBI agents, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has been working from the second floor of Irving police headquarters.
'They're all back in there together where they can communicate with each other,' Tull said.
The Texas Board of Criminal Justice, the policy-making panel for the prison system, has asked the FBI and the U.S. Marshal's Office to step up their involvement.
'They have expertise and equipment that we don't have access to,' said Alfred 'Mac' Stringfellow, chairman of the nine-member panel.
He said he expects the inquiry into the Connally Unit escape to be complete next month. He said he will withhold comment until investigators are finished.
Stringfellow said his agency is providing Gov. Rick Perry's office with regular updates.
Cannady, the Irving police chief, said Hawkins' family is kept abreast of information in daily briefing sessions.