Global Courant 2023-05-03 13:05:47
The man accused of killing five of his neighbors with an AR-15 rifle at their Texas home was arrested Tuesday, after a tip led authorities to a home less than 20 miles from where the crimes took place officials said.
The arrest of 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa in the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas, marked the end of a massive manhunt entering its fourth day on Tuesday.
A tip that came in an FBI line at 5:15 p.m. led to Oropesa’s arrest at 6:30 p.m., Jimmy Paul, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Houston, said at a news conference.
“We just want to thank the person who had the courage and courage to call the suspect’s location,” said Paul.
Oropesa is charged with killing five people, including a 9-year-old boy, in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night after a family member asked him to stop firing his gun because a baby was trying to sleep, officials have said.
Oropesa is charged with five counts of murder and is being held on $5 million bond, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said.
Capers called Oropesa a coward.
“He was caught hiding in a closet under some laundry,” he said Tuesday.
Details about the house where Oropesa was found have not been released. Officials said the matter is still under investigation.
Footage that seemed to capture the moments during and after the suspect’s arrest showed a man being led away from a home in handcuffs and later seated on the passenger side of a vehicle.
Law enforcement is searching for the suspect a few miles from the scene where five people were shot dead Friday in Cleveland, Texas. Go to Nakamura/Getty Images
The arrest ended the extensive search, which involved more than 250 law enforcement officers, the FBI and an $80,000 reward for information.
Oropesa was arrested four days after he went to his neighbor’s home in the Trails End area of Cleveland, about 43 miles north of Houston, and opened fire, the sheriff’s office said.
Oropesa began firing after one person complained that gunfire from his adjoining property kept a baby from sleeping, officials said.
Wilson Garcia’s wife asked him to go to Oropesa’s residence and ask that he stop firing or shoot elsewhere. The request didn’t seem unreasonable, Garcia said, since they were on good terms with Oropesa.
“So we went up to the man and told the man to please stop shooting or keep firing further away from the house. But he responded by saying he was in his property and could do whatever he wanted,” Garcia said.
“I said, ‘Okay, that’s good. It’s your property, but can you please move further away or refuse it, that’s all?” Garcia said. “Then he started insulting us and we told him we were calling the police.”
The victims, all believed to be from Honduras, have been identified as: Daniel Enrique Laso, 9; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julia Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.
Garcia has identified Daniel as his son and Guzman as his wife and the child’s mother.
More coverage of the deadly shooting in Cleveland, Texas
Officials said the four adult victims were pronounced dead at the scene and Daniel died in a hospital. Three other children were found in the house and may have been saved by two women who draped their bodies over them, Capers said. He said he thought 15 bullets had been fired.
Cut and Shoot, where Oropesa was arrested Tuesday, is a community of about 1,000 people just east of Conroe and about 15 miles west of the Cleveland area where the murders took place.
Investigators had said on Sunday they were walking into dead ends, with “zero clues”.
The FBI said Tuesday that law enforcement officials were analyzing “hundreds of pieces of information from all over,” and digital billboards in the Houston area showed Oropesa and the reward. There were plans to expand the billboards statewide.
Maria Rodriguez places flowers Tuesday outside the home in Cleveland, Texas, where five people were shot dead.David J Phillip / AP
It is not immediately clear how Oropesa escaped the police for days.
Searchers found his cell phone and some of his clothing on Saturday, but scent-detection dogs eventually lost his trail.
Capers also said authorities seized the shotgun used in the attack, but Oropesa may still have been armed with a handgun.
Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference on Sunday that the gunman had been deported from the US four times and was illegally back in Texas.
Oropesa’s wife filed a protective order against him last year alleging he hit her, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said. She said he was drunk and hit her with a closed fist, kicked her to the floor and threatened her, Dillon said.
His wife told authorities last year that Oropesa was staying with a sister in Conroe, Dillon said earlier. Conroe is about 6 miles from Cut and Shoot; there was no information that there was any connection to Tuesday’s arrest.
A host of agencies assisted in the search for Oropesa, including the FBI’s field office in Houston, the US Marshals Service, the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers.
The Marshals Service, the Public Safety Department and the US Border Patrol Tactical Unit entered the home and arrested Oropesa, officials said.
Deputy US Marshal Joe Ruiz de Chavez said the killings were “a heinous crime that devastated this community and this country”.
“This is a very sad time for the victims and I hope this will bring them some comfort and allow them to grieve,” he said.
