Global Courant 2023-05-03 07:20:42
Texas, United States.
Francisco Oropesathe murderer of five Hondurans in San Jacinto, Texas, was arrested this Tuesday afternoon in the city of Cut and Shoot, Texas, a US federal police source reported.
Cut and Shoot is approximately 27 kilometers west of Cleveland, where the massacre occurred.
A conference is expected fbi at 9:30 p.m. Miami time.
Authorities had been searching for Oropesa since last Friday when, according to police, he opened fire on his neighbors, killing five people, including a mother and her 9-year-old son.
The border patrol was careful that Oropesa did not flee to Mexico.
a horrendous crime
In San Jacinto County, where the events occurred, a sign with his face and a message offering $80,000 for information leading to his whereabouts can be seen on a street, according to an image released by authorities.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said the shooter was in the country “illegally” and had “killed five illegal immigrants,” drawing criticism for his focus on the victims’ immigration status.
“Five human beings lost their lives and Greg Abbott insists on labeling them ‘illegal immigrants,'” Julian Castro, former Democratic mayor of the Texas city of San Antonio, tweeted.
On Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Abbott’s office quoted by the local press acknowledged that at least one of the victims had formal residence in the country.
Abbott added that he will continue to “work with state and local officials to ensure that they have all the resources to respond to this horrific crime.”
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the five victims who fell in this senseless act of violence,” he added.
CNN reported that oropesa he had already been deported at least four times since 2009, in a report citing immigration authorities.
Considered armed and dangerous, “he could be anywhere,” Sheriff Greg Capers, in charge of the investigation, warned over the weekend. FBI Special Agent James Smith called him a “monster.”
Capers, the San Jacinto sheriff, said his thoughts were with the slain “little boy.”
“I don’t care if (the shooter) was here illegally. He was in my county. Five people died in my county and that’s where my heart is,” Capers said.
Last Friday, members of the Guzmán family shared their home in Cleveland, San Jacinto County, Ramiro Guzmán, brother of one of the victims, told the press.
They heard shots that the neighbor Oropeza was making from his garden, with a semi-automatic rifle. According to Ramiro, they first called 911, but it took a while to arrive. Through the grating that divided his apartment, they told him to please shoot elsewhere, because he was waking up a child.
He said that Oropeza became enraged, entered the family’s house and began shooting at them. Some managed to hide in closets or fled. When the police arrived, Oropeza was gone.
Wilson García, one of the survivors, lost his 9-year-old son and his wife, as well as “two other people who died protecting my 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter.” He escaped through a window.
Sheriff Capers described a terrifying scene when authorities arrived at the victims’ residence after receiving a call around 11:30 p.m. local time Friday.
Bodies were scattered from the front door to a bedroom, where two women were found lying on top of two frightened children who survived the massacre.
“In my opinion, they were trying to take care of the babies and keep them alive,” Capers told reporters.
All of the victims were shot “from the neck up, almost execution style, basically to the head,” according to the sheriff. Several residents were shot.
Capers said the suspect “had been drinking” and allegedly told his neighbors “I’ll do whatever I want in my front yard” before opening fire.
According to immigration sources cited by CNN, Oropeza had illegal status and had already been expelled from the United States four times.
The incident shocked the country and also Honduras, whose authorities have requested sanctions for the perpetrator.
On Monday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called on Congress to act for greater control over the civilian use of guns. “There is still time to save lives and prevent the next mass killing,” she said.
This incident is the latest in a series of shootings in the United States sparked by domestic interactions gone bad: a teenager who mistakenly knocked on the wrong door while looking for his siblings, a cheerleader who got the wrong car in a parking lot or someone who Stopped by mistake at the wrong house.
So far this year there have been more than 180 mass shootings, with four or more people injured or killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
With more guns than people, the United States has the highest rate of gun deaths of any developed country: 49,000 in 2021, up from 45,000 the year before.
Information in development…
