Taking place in Houston, Texas, a man was suspected of killing 5 neighbors with an AR-15 rifle just outside of the city.
Authorities stated on Sunday that 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa appeared to slip out of sight of 150 law enforcement officers in Cleveland. 45 miles north of Houston on Saturday.
250 officers continued the search for Francisco Oropesa on Sunday.
Oropesa is suspected of opening fire on neighbors late Friday night after complaints came from the neighbors. The complaints were in reference to shots coming from his property, keeping an infant from getting a proper night of sleep.
A local neighbor Shawn Crawford, who said he knows Oropesa and the victims, described the community as “family-oriented” and the suspect as a “family guy.”
“He’s always working, training his horse,” Crawford said. “Never have I seen a fight, argument, raise his voice, anything.”
Complaints about gunfire in the past Oropesa quickly addressed moving to another part of his property and trying to resolve the issue. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers acknowledged previous reports of gunfire, which he said might not have been illegal, depending on the size of his property.
Law enforcement agents talked to Oropesa’s wife but had no leads beside his contact with someone Saturday afternoon.
“We’re running into dead ends,” James Smith, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Houston-area office, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. “Right now, we have zero leads.”
The youngest victim was only 9 years old, Daniel Enrique Laso. The others were known as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18. All were believed to be from Honduras.
Capers spoke out on Sunday with a heartfelt message “heart is with” the little boy who died. “I don’t care if he was here legally. I don’t care if he was here illegally. He was in my county. Five people died in my county, and that is where my heart is — in my county protecting our people to the best of our ability.”
My own heart goes out to the family and the little boy, as he had a whole life ahead of him and a family who loved him. Prayers to the whole family.
Reward money for information leading to the apprehension of the suspect is $80,000 in total.
The four adults died at the scene, and the little boy passed away in the hospital.
Capers said that “All of them were headshot in an execution style,”
He believes 15 rounds in total were fired.
“This man takes it upon himself to walk out of his residence with a loaded AR-15, walk out into the street, walk down the street, walk into that man’s driveway, walk up into that man’s house, and start shooting.”
