The search for a Texas man who allegedly shot his neighbors after they asked him to stop shooting meats in their yard extended into a second day Sunday, with authorities saying the man could be anywhere at this time.
Police initially identified the suspect as 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza, but the Houston FBI office later said it would use the spelling Francisco Oropesa to better reflect his identity in law enforcement systems. the law
Orpesa fled after the Friday night shooting that left five people dead, including an 8-year-old boy. (Authorities said later the boy was 9 years old.)
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Saturday evening that authorities had expanded the search to within 32 kilometers (20 miles) of the shooting site.
Investigators found clothing and a phone while combing a rural area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs missed the scent, Capers said.
Police recovered the AR-15-style rifle that Orpesa allegedly used in the shootings, but authorities were unsure if he was carrying another weapon, the sheriff said.
“I could be anywhere right now,” Capers said.
FBI Houston
The attack took place near the city of Cleveland, north of Houston, on a street where some residents say neighbors often relax by shooting guns.
Capers said the victims ranged in age from 8 to 31 and were all believed to be from Honduras. They were all shot “from the neck up,” he said.
The attack was the latest act of gun violence in what has been a record spate of mass shootings in the US so far this year, some of which have also involved semi-automatic rifles.
The mass murders have occurred in several locations: a school in Nashville, a bank in Kentucky, a dance hall in Southern California, and now a rural Texas neighborhood inside a single-story home.
Capers said 10 people were in the home, some of whom had just moved in earlier in the week, but no one else was injured. He said two of the victims were found in a bedroom lying on top of two children in an apparent attempt to protect them.
A total of three children found covered in blood in the home were taken to a hospital but were found unharmed, Capers said.
FBI spokeswoman Christina Garza said investigators do not believe everyone in the home was part of the same family.
The victims were identified by the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Sonia Guzman, 28; Diana Velásquez, 21; Obdulia Molina, 31; Jonathan Caceres, 18, and Daniel Enrique Lazo, 9. It’s unclear how they were related, but they all lived in the same house. CBS Houston affiliate KHOU reported.
The Honduran Foreign Ministry told CBS on Sunday that it is in contact with the families of the victims “to begin the process to repatriate their bodies to Honduras.”
The confrontation followed neighbors approaching the fence and asking the suspect to stop shooting, Capers said. The suspect responded by telling them it was his property, Capers said, and a person at the home received video of the suspect walking to the front door with the rifle.
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The shooting took place on a bumpy country street where single-story homes sit on 1-acre lots and are surrounded by a thick canopy of trees. A horse could be seen behind the victim’s house, while a dog and chickens roamed the front yard of Orpesa’s house.
Rene Arevalo Sr., who lives a few houses down, said he heard gunshots around midnight but didn’t think anything of it.
“It’s a normal thing that people do around here, especially on Fridays after work,” Arévalo said. “They come home and start drinking in the back yard and shooting out there.”
Capers said his deputies had been to Orpesa’s home at least once before and talked to him about “shooting his gun in the yard.” It was unclear if any action was taken at the time. At a press conference Saturday evening, the sheriff said firing a gun on your own property can be illegal, but did not say whether Orpesa had previously broken the law.
Capers said the newcomers to the house had moved in from Houston earlier in the week, but he said he didn’t know if they planned to stay.
In the United States since Jan. 1, there have been at least 18 shootings that left four or more dead, according to a database Maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today, in partnership with Northeastern University. Violence is caused by several reasons: murder-suicides and domestic violence; gang retaliation; school shootings; and labor vendettas.
Texas has faced several mass shootings in recent years, including last year’s attack on Robb d’Uvalde primary school; a racist attack on an El Paso Walmart in 2019; already A gunman opened fire on a church in the small town of Sutherland Springs in 2017.
Texas Republican leaders have continually rejected calls for new gun restrictions, including this year over protests from several families whose children were killed in Uvalde.
A few months ago, Arévalo said Oropesa threatened to kill his dog after it got loose in the neighborhood and chased the pit bull with his truck.
“I tell my wife all the time, ‘Stay away from the neighbors. Don’t argue with them. You never know how they’re going to react,'” Arévalo said. “I tell him that because Texas is a state where you don’t know who has a gun and who’s going to react that way.”
