The Texas man who allegedly shot five people, including an eight-year-old, after neighbors asked him to stop firing an AR-15 into his yard is still on the run after 36 hours, as authorities admit that he “could be anywhere” as the FBI joins the manhunt.
Francisco Oropeza, 38, fled after the shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. Friday near the city of Cleveland, Texas, north of Houston, on a street where some residents say neighbors often relax by firing guns.
But target practice turned deadly when neighbors confronted Oropeza and asked him to stop because a baby was trying to sleep. The suspect responded by telling them it was his property, and allegedly pointed the gun at them, killing five people.
The search for the suspect, now entering its second day, has expanded to 20 miles from the shooting scene, with San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers admitting “he could be anywhere right now.”
The FBI’s field office in Houston stated that they joined the search and “will be there until Francisco Oropeza is captured.”
Francisco Oropeza, 38, who reportedly shot five people, including an eight-year-old, after being asked to stop firing his AR-15, is on the run as police admit he “could be anywhere”
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers got emotional at a press conference on Saturday, where he revealed that the victims were between the ages of 8 and 31 and that they were all believed to be from Honduras. All were shot “from the neck up,” he said
Investigators found clothes and a phone while combing a rural area toward Oropeza with dense forest layers, but sniffer dogs lost the scent, Capers said.
Police recovered the AR-15-style rifle Oropeza is believed to have used in the shootings, but authorities weren’t sure if he had another weapon on him, the sheriff said.
Capers got emotional at a press conference on Saturday, where he revealed that the victims were between the ages of 8 and 31 and that they were all believed to be from Honduras. All were shot “almost execution style” from the neck down, he said.
Capers said there were 10 people in the home — some of whom had just moved in earlier this week — but no one else was injured. He said two of the victims were found in a bedroom lying above two children in an apparent attempt to protect them.
“In my opinion, they were actually trying to take care of the babies and keep them alive,” he said.
A total of three children were found covered in blood in the house and taken to a hospital, but they appeared to be unharmed, Capers said.
FBI spokeswoman Christina Garza said investigators do not believe everyone in the home was a member of a single family.
The victims were identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julia Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.
A dangerous cleanup crew handles what appears to be a body bag at the scene of a mass shooting in Cleveland, near Houston, on Friday. The search for the suspect, now in its second day, has widened to 20 miles from the shooting scene
A loved one is comforted by others when he arrives at the scene where five people were shot
Loved ones mourn Saturday at the Texas crime scene after the shooting of five people
The confrontation was sparked by neighbors approaching the fence and asking the suspect to stop firing, Capers said.
The suspect responded by telling them it was his property, Capers said, and a person in the home was given video of the suspect walking toward the front door with the gun.
The shooting took place on a rural street full of potholes where single-story homes sit on large 1-acre lots and are surrounded by a thick canopy. A horse could be seen behind the victim’s house, while a dog and chickens roamed in the front yard of Oropeza’s house.
Rene Arevalo Sr., who lives a few houses away, said he heard gunshots around midnight but thought nothing of it.
“It’s normal what people do here, especially on Fridays after work,” Arevalo said. “They come home and start drinking in their backyard and shooting out there.”
A few months ago, Arevalo said Oropeza threatened to kill his dog after it was let loose nearby and chased the pit bull in his truck.
“I tell my wife all the time, ‘Stay away from the neighbors. Don’t argue with them. You never know how they will react,” Arevalo said. “I tell her that because Texas is a state where you don’t know who has a gun and who will react that way.”
The scene of the Cleveland, Texas shooting where five people were fatally shot by a neighbor
The suspect lives next door. He was shooting in his yard when at 11:30pm his neighbors asked him to stop so they could get their baby to sleep
The suspect responded by telling them it was his property, Capers said, and a person in the home was given video of the suspect walking toward the front door with the gun.
Capers said his deputies had been to Oropeza’s house at least once before and talked to him about “shooting his gun in the yard.” It was not clear at the time whether any action was being taken.
At a news conference Saturday night, the sheriff said it may be illegal to fire a gun on your own property, but he didn’t say whether Oropeza had previously broken the law.
Capers said the newcomers to the house had moved from Houston earlier this week, but he said he didn’t know if they planned to stay there.
The attack was the latest act of gun violence in a record number of mass shootings across the US so far this year, some of which also involved semi-automatic rifles.
The massacres have taken place in a variety of places — a school in Nashville, a bank in Kentucky, a dance hall in Southern California, and now a rural Texas neighborhood in a one-story house.
Capers said his deputies had been to Oropeza’s house at least once before and talked to him about “shooting his gun in the yard.” It was not clear at the time whether any action was being taken
There have been at least 18 shootings in the U.S. since Jan. 1 that killed four or more people, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today, in conjunction with Northeastern University.
The violence is fueled by a range of motives: murder-suicides and domestic violence; gang retaliation; school shootings; and workplace vendettas.
Texas has suffered multiple mass shootings in recent years, including last year’s attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde; a racist attack on a Walmart in El Paso in 2019; and a gunman who opened fire on a church in the small town of Sutherland Springs in 2017.
Republican leaders in Texas have consistently rejected calls for new gun restrictions, including this year over protests from several families whose children were killed in Uvalde.