CLEVELAND, May 3 (BNA): Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting five Texas neighbors to death and leading several agencies on a four-day manhunt, after a tip led them to a home in a nearby town where he was caught hiding. . Under the wash, officials said.
The bloodshed broke out Friday after neighbors told the suspect to stop firing his semi-automatic rifle in his yard because it kept their child awake. Officials said the man reloaded and entered the next door home of Honduran migrants, killing five including an 8-year-old child.
The suspect has been identified as Francisco Oropesa, 38, a Mexican national who immigration officials said has been deported from the United States four times since 2009.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters that officials acted on a tip from an anonymous individual who will now be eligible for an $80,000 reward offered for information leading to his arrest.
“He’s behind bars, and he’s going to live his life behind bars for killing those five,” Capers said, adding that Oropesa will be held on $5 million bail for five counts of murder.
The victims were killed in Cleveland, Texas, and the suspect was arrested in Cut and Shoot, Texas, about 17 miles (27 km) west. Both are about 50 miles (80 km) north of Houston.
The arrest came as the FBI said it was working with law enforcement agencies across the country and in Mexico on an extended four-day manhunt.
As of Sunday, the suspect’s trail was running cold, but several agencies were quickly mobilized, joining the sheriff’s and FBI’s oaths, upon receiving the tip.
Officers from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit carried out the arrest about an hour and 15 minutes after receiving the tip, said Jamie Ball, the FBI’s assistant special agent in charge.
Most of the victims were shot in the head. All of them are from Honduras and are among the 10 people living at the address, Capers said, but not all are family members.
The victims are 25-year-old Sonia Argentine Guzman. Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; And Daniel Enrique Laso 8.
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