Global Courant 2023-05-01 05:06:10
A suspect on the run in Texas after allegedly killing five execution-style neighbors Friday night when they complained that he fired a shotgun at his property has been evicted five times, an ICE source told Fox News Digital.
The FBI said Sunday afternoon that authorities have “no leads” in the search for Francisco Oropesa, 38, a Mexican national charged with the five-count murder in Cleveland, Texas, outside of Houston.
The Texas governor’s office, state agencies and the FBI are offering a combined reward of $80,000 for tips leading to his arrest.
“We don’t know where he is, that’s why we came up with this reward,” FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge James Smith told reporters Sunday, adding that he’s sure Oropesa has been contacting friends since she became a fugitive, but they need to know who.
FBI RELEASES NEW PHOTOS OF FLUUGEE IN ILLEGAL LAND ACCUSED OF FATTY SHOOTING OF 5 NEIGHBORS IN TEXAS
Francisco Oropesa is accused of killing five of his neighbors after a noise complaint. (F.B.I. Houston)
Oropesa was in the country illegally at the time of the shooting and had previously illegally re-entered the country “several” times after his deportations, another ICE source told Fox News Digital.
The source added that Oropesa was last encountered by ICE in 2016.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he would not “comment” on Oropesa’s immigration status after Todd said there was a question about him having a “consulate card, meaning that he was here legally, but maybe he had stayed too long?”
Mayorkas replied, “I won’t comment on it because it’s an active case. The tragedy that happened is…just absolutely horrific.”
MEXICAN NATIONAL WANTED IN DEATH SHOOTING OF 5 NEIGHBORS IN TEXAS ‘MIGHT BE ANYWHERE’, SAYS SHERIFF
The FBI has released four new photos of Oropesa’s face, including one of a large tattoo of a woman with a headdress on one of his arms.
“He could be anywhere right now,” San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Saturday night, adding that investigators have widened their perimeter from about five or six square miles to “as much as 10 or 20, depending on whether he passed the highline wire or not. .”
Authorities found an abandoned cell phone and items of clothing lying around, and Texas Department of Correction sniffer dogs “picked up a scent and then lost that scent in the water,” the sheriff said.
The victims have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.
Wilson Garcia, who lost his wife and son in the shooting, told local news station KTRK-TV that they were preparing to call police after asking Oropesa to stop shooting his AR-15 because it was late and their 1 month old baby couldn’t sleep.
But Oropesa entered their house and started shooting before they could.
“I never thought he would shoot,” Garcia said, adding that Oropesa had also tried to shoot him but missed. “Then he went from room to room, looking for people.”
Two women were also found on top of three children who survived in an apparent attempt to protect them from the bullets.
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Garcia said he had never had a problem with Oropesa in the three years his family had lived there.
“I can’t believe what he did,” he added.
