Law enforcement arrested a man Tuesday accused of strolling into the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center with a shotgun over the weekend.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s office announced Thursday that it had arrested Kaleb Arath Lopez, 19, and charged him with prohibited substance/items in a correctional facility, a third degree felony.
Jail records indicate Lopez was still being held at the Hidalgo County jail with a $15,000 bond as of press time Thursday.
The jail was placed on lockdown Saturday after Lopez reportedly strode into its public information lobby in what appeared to be an air filtration mask, bearing a plastic shopping bag and a shotgun.
He mumbled a few unintelligible words, walked out of the building and drove away in a passenger car.
According to information released by the sheriff’s office Thursday, that car was later determined to be a blue Chevy Malibu.
Investigators learned that the Edinburg Police Department had received a call about a suicidal man matching the shotgun-toter’s description, the release said, a man who also had a car that matched the one investigators were searching for.
“A relative of Kaleb stated she overheard Kaleb on the phone “yelling” at a female friend hours before the incident,” the release read. “It was determined his female friend was incarcerated at the Hidalgo county jail at the time of the incident.”
Lopez was arraigned by Justice of the Peace Gilbert Saenz, the release said.
