Thu, May 04, 2023 page7

• Texas shooter suspect caught on tip

  FINALLY OVER: The search for Francisco Oropeza involved more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions, drones, dogs and offers of US$80,000 in reward money

  • AP, CLEVELAND, Texas
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  A four-day search in Texas for a shooter accused of killing five neighbors ended on Tuesday 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 captured without incident near the community of Conroe, north of Houston and about 32km from his home in the rural town of Cleveland. That is where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors with a rifle shortly before midnight on Friday.

  Oropeza had been shooting rounds on his property and the attack occurred after neighbors asked him to go farther away because the gunfire was keeping a baby awake, police said.

  

  A man on Tuesday releases a balloon from a makeshift memorial outside a home where five people were shot and killed on Friday in Cleveland, Texas.

  Photo: AP

  Oropeza is to be charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said.

  His bond was set at US$5 million.

  “They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars,” Capers said of the families of the victims. “He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.”

  The arrest ends what had become a widening dragnet that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions, with US$80,000 in reward money offered.

  As recently as Tuesday morning, the FBI said that Oropeza “could be anywhere,” underlining how investigators for days struggled to get a sense of his whereabouts and candidly acknowledged they had no leads.

  The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15pm, and a little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, FBI assistant special agent in charge Jimmy Paul said.

  The alleged shooter is Mexican, and has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, US immigration officials said.

  Authorities did not say who owned the house, whether Oropeza knew them or if anyone else was inside when he was found.

  They also would not say whether friends or family had helped Oropeza evade capture, or where he had been since fleeing the scene in Cleveland, which authorities previously said was likely on foot.

  Drones and scent-tracking dogs had been used during the widening search, which included combing a heavily wooded forest a few kilometers from the scene.

  Republican Governor Greg Abbott offered a US$50,000 reward as the search dragged late into the weekend, while others offered an additional US$30,000 in reward money.

  All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said that 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.

  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.

  Osman Velasquez, Diana Velazquez Alvarado’s father, on Tuesday said that his daughter had recently obtained US residency and had traveled to the country without documents eight years ago with the help of a sister, who was already living there.

  “Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and that’s true,” he said. “But I never imagined it was just for this.”
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