Global Courant 2023-05-03 06:30:42
Authorities near Houston say they have caught a man suspected of killing five of his neighbors, including a nine-year-old boy, with an AR rifle after the family confronted him about firing bullets late at night in his garden.
Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested four days later on Tuesday the shooting late Friday in the city of Cleveland, Texas, about 43 miles north of Houston, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said at a news conference Tuesday evening. He said Oropesa was hidden in a home’s closet, under a pile of laundry, after investigators responded to a tip.
The arrest took place near Conroe, which is about 30 kilometers from the house.
Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson said Oropesa was arrested without incident.
“They can rest easy now because he’s behind bars,” Capers said of the victims’ families. “He will spend his life behind bars for killing those five.”
Police had deployed drones and sniffer dogs during the search, which included combing a heavily wooded forest not far from the crime scene.
LOOK | How the manhunt went:
Manhunt underway after mass shooting in Texas
US authorities are looking for a man in East Texas suspected of killing five of his neighbors, including an eight-year-old boy, on Friday night. Police believe the suspect killed them after being asked to stop firing his AR-15 rifle in his yard because a baby was sleeping.
Friday’s shooting occurred after the suspect’s neighbors asked him to stop firing bullets into his yard late at night because a baby was trying to sleep.
During a Sunday vigil in Cleveland, Wilson Garcia, the father of that child, described the terrifying efforts friends and family made at his house that night to escape, hide and protect themselves and children after a gunman walked up to the house and started shot and killed his wife. first at the front door.
Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested without incident on Tuesday, according to authorities. (FBI/Handout/Reuters)
The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julia Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.
Republican Chief Executive Greg Abbott, who had come to terms with drawing attention to the victims’ immigration status, had this weekend offered a $50,000 reward for tips that could lead to the shooter. The three-term governor had described all of the victims as “illegal immigrants” — a possibly false statement that his office backtracked and apologized for Monday.
Oropesa, a Mexican national, has been deported four times, according to U.S. immigration officials: in March 2009, September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016.
A loved one is comforted by people when he arrives at the scene of the shooting. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle/The Associated Press)
