The crime spree culminated on Christmas Eve, when an Oshman’s SuperSports USA store in Irving, Texas, was robbed, and policeman Aubrey Hawkins, a young father, was murdered. It was a brutal killing: an autopsy showed that Hawkins had been shot 11 times, six in the head, and officials said his body had been dragged from his police car and run over. Given the violence of the act-and the fact that 60 weapons had been stolen during the robbery-lawmen feared that when they finally cornered the escapees, the showdown would be deadly.

But that never happened. Last week, acting on a tip, police located the men in the tiny mountain town of Woodland Park, Colo. SWAT teams picked up three men at a gas station. A fourth surrendered outside the RV, where the escapees, who were posing as traveling Christian missionaries, had lived. Rather than be taken, a fifth committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the heart. The final two men turned up a day later in nearby Colorado Springs. They surrendered after six hours of negotiations, demanding-and getting-10 minutes of live airtime on a local television station. They used it to blast the Texas penal and justice systems.

The group’s leader, George Angel Rivas, is a 30-year-old convicted robber and kidnapper who was serving 17 concurrent life sentences when he escaped. Last week, Rivas admitted to what authorities had already guessed: he had planned the escape, recruited the men who escaped with him and plotted the robberies. He also admitted to firing the first shots that hit, and perhaps killed, Aubrey Hawkins. Rivas is being held in the Teller County Jail in Colorado. On Saturday, he spoke by phone to NEWSWEEK’s Andrew Murr.

NEWSWEEK: You’ve said that it was you who fired the first shots at Officer Hawkins [of the Irving, Texas, Police Department]. Is that right?

George Rivas: Yes, sir.

Tell me what happened.

When he pulled up [in his police car outside the Oshman’s store on Christmas Eve], I approached him and started screaming at first for him to raise his hands. He started reaching down with his right hand.

He was out of his vehicle by this time?

No. He was in his vehicle. He had just pulled in behind the vehicle we were trying to get into. He reached down with his right hand. I fired one shot through the windshield at his shoulder of his bulletproof vest…He then started moving his left hand down. I didn’t know if he had a gun in the left hand or right hand. I didn’t know. So I got closer and I fired another shot to the left shoulder and hit the vest, because I saw the blossom. And he had just started picking his hands up, in front of the steering wheel, when I got shot in the stomach. I didn’t know from who, even to this day. And I know I fired three more rounds into the vehicle.

How long did it take to plan the escape? The authorities seem to believe it went on for months.

The initial plan took me about three weeks. [Then] we just waited for the wintertime so people could have heavy coats and winter cover [to hide weapons]. But initially the plan, as it stood, took me about three weeks.

How did you select the inmates who joined you? First of all, did you select them?

Yes, I did. I just picked people I felt I could trust. I listened to them as they talked first. I just want to clarify: We weren’t just some kind of animals on a rampage. Everyone just wanted to have a new life. Everybody had a plan. It wasn’t to go robbing and stealing and everything. It was just at first, of course, to [commit several robberies in order to] get money, [but then] we were just on the lookout for [false] IDs, trying to buy them. But then we were apprehended. Everybody just wanted to start over, basically.

After the shooting, why did you all continue to stick together?

Aside from being friends and trusting one another, we were really shaken up after what happened in Texas…We came up to Colorado hoping to put enough distance between us and Texas to at least try and buy some fake IDs so we could start some kind of life. We had planned to break up afterward.

I have read that you wanted to stick around the Denver area and get a job.

I had gone [for] a butcher job, a Mexican restaurant kind of thing that had a ‘Help Wanted’ sign out front. I asked the lady about it. She was surprised I spoke Spanish. She thought [with dyed-blond hair] I was an Anglo male. I lied and said I had learned Spanish in school. And she said she liked that. It would help with some of her customers. And I asked her what I needed to get a job here. She said just fill out an application. And that was my plan.

Why didn’t you go straight to Mexico? Or was the plan to go to Arizona, as you’ve said before [in an interview with the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram], and then enter Mexico?

No. I would have kind of felt lost in Mexico, to tell you the truth. Honestly [the plan] was to just get IDs and get jobs. I’ve heard a lot of things about [our wanting to end with armed] standoffs and things, but we just wanted to live like normal people.

Did you have help?

We had help with the vehicle that was provided.

You mean with the Suburban [the vehicle that was placed at a Wal-Mart parking lot near the prison]?

Yes.

Who was it?

He’ll have to speak for himself. I asked him not to tell anybody, not even myself, who it was, so in case something like this did ever happen, no one could be implicated. I understand that he’s already talked to investigators about it. But that was it. That was the only help. There wasn’t any inside the prison. We didn’t visit anybody or nothing. That was the only way we thought we could protect our identities or our safety.

Did you leave that night [directly after the robbery]?

We left the next afternoon, Christmas afternoon. We’d heard that he was still alive. Believe it or not, we were rooting that he would.

He would what?

Live. I’m sorry sir, I’ve never done that before, my mind isn’t right, right now.

Was Colorado chosen by chance, or did you plan to come here?

There wasn’t a clear plan to come here , but after what happened on Christmas Eve, we just fled.

You’ve given up your right to have an extradition hearing [in Colorado], and you’ll be taken back to Texas within 10 days. What do you expect will happen to you, and what do you think should happen?

I’m responsible, sir, and that’s why I waived my right to an extradition. I don’t want to prolong this any further for the Hawkins family. There’s no issue for me to fight. I am guilty, so I gotta pay with my own life. I just hope they don’t take it out on the rest of them.

Did you really think you were going to get away with it, even after the policeman was shot?

Honestly, sir, it was just a day-by-day thing. [We were] enjoying what little freedom we had day by day, taking a walk in the woods, or just walking to the corner store to buy a soda. I was really hoping we could [get away].

You had 41 days of freedom, but the tradeoff was that someone lost his life. What do you have to say about that?

Two people lost their lives, sir. My best friend took his life. It was definitely not worth it.