Cleveland Shooting: In a shocking incident, a Texas man killed five of his neighbors after they asked him to stop firing bullets into their yard as they were trying to sleep. According to authorities, the man went next door with a rifle and fatally shot five of his neighbors, including an 8-year-old boy, on Saturday.
The suspect, identified as Francisco Oropeza, 38, lived more than 18 hours after the shooting and officials warned he may still be armed. The attack happened just before midnight Friday on a street near the city of Cleveland, north of Houston, where some residents say it is not unusual to hear neighbors firing guns.
The accused is roaming around with weapons
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Oropeza used an AR-style rifle, and that as of Saturday evening, authorities had widened their efforts to search for him “10 to 20 miles” from the scene of the murder. He said Oropeza may still have a weapon but believes officers have the rifle used in the shooting.
Capers said they found the clothes and a phone during a search in a rural area that included thick layers of forest, but the tracking dogs had lost the scent.
“He could be anywhere now,” Capers said.
Capers said the victims ranged in age from 8 to 31 and were all believed to be from Honduras. He said that all had been shot “above the neck”.
Some of the victims recently moved to the shooting area
The attack was the latest act of gun violence in a record spurt of mass shootings in the US so far this year, some of which have involved semiautomatic rifles.
The mass murders have occurred in a variety of locations—a Nashville school, a Kentucky bank, a Southern California dance hall, and now a rural Texas neighborhood inside a single-story home.
Capers said there were 10 people in the house — some of whom had just moved there earlier in the week — but no one else was injured. He said two of the victims were found lying in a bedroom on top of two children who were trying to rescue them.
8 year old boy died due to bullet injury
FBI spokeswoman Cristina Garza said investigators do not believe everyone in the home was a member of the same family. The victims were identified as 25-year-old Sonia Argento Guzmán; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julissa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Lasso, 8.
Capers said the confrontation occurred when neighbors walked up to the fence and asked the suspect to stop firing. The suspect responded by telling them it was his property, Capers said, and a man in the house found video of the suspect walking up to the front door with a rifle.
Officers from multiple agencies work on the scene where law enforcement believe they have surrounded a suspect who allegedly shot and killed five people in a home
Mass shootings have increased in the US in recent years
There have been at least 18 mass shootings in which four or more people have died across the United States since January 1. The causes of violence are many: murder-suicide and domestic violence; gang vendetta; school shootings; and workplace retaliation.
Texas has suffered several mass shootings in recent years, including last year’s attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde; racist assault at an El Paso Walmart in 2019; And in 2017 a gunman opened fire on a church in the small town of Sutherland Springs.
Republican leaders in Texas have consistently rejected calls for new firearms restrictions, including this year over protests from several families whose children were killed in Uvalde.
(with inputs from AP)