This undated photo shows Francisco Oropeza. Photo / FBI (Houston)
This undated photo shows Francisco Oropeza. Photo / FBI (Houston)
A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbours ended today not far from the site of the shooting when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.
Francisco Oropeza,38, was arrested four days after the shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 72km north of Houston, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.
He said Oropeza was arrested without incident near Conroe, which is roughly 32km from the home authorities say Oropeza fled after shooting his neighbours and setting off a widening manhunt that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions.
The sheriff would not say whether Oropeza was armed or how authorities figured out where he was.
Police had used drones and scent-tracking dogs during the wide search for Oropeza that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Governor Greg Abbott offered US$50,000 ($80,000) in reward money as the search dragged late into the weekend and the FBI acknowledged that they had little indication as to Oropeza’s whereabouts.
People gather for a vigil outside the home where the shooting occurred. Photo / AP
The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times, according to US immigration officials. The gunman was first deported in March 2009 and last in July 2016. He was also deported in September 2009 and January 2012.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said that prior to the shooting, deputies had been called to the suspect’s house at least one other time previously over Oropeza shooting rounds in his yard.
All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children, after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.
Garcia said Oropeza came running over to their house loading an AR-15 after he and two other people had asked him to stop firing off rounds late at night because a baby inside was trying to sleep. Garcia said Oropeza told him he could do what he wanted on his property.
In offering the reward, Abbot called the victims “illegal immigrants”, a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologised for Tuesday after drawing wide backlash over drawing attention to the immigration status of the victims.
The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.
Osmán Velásquez, Diana Velazquez Alvarado’s father, said that his daughter had recently gotten residency and had travelled to the United States without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.
