CLEVELAND, Texas: The main suspect in the killing of five people, including a woman and her nine-year-old son at a neighbour’s home in Texas, was arrested on Tuesday evening after a protracted manhunt, officials said.
The suspect, identified as Francisco Oropesa, was discovered hiding in a house just miles from the home in Cleveland, Texas, where the shooting occurred, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said.
A Mexican national, Oropesa was “caught hiding in a closet beneath some laundry,” Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.
“They efficiently made the arrest; he is uninjured, and he is presently being taken to my facility in Coldspring,” Capers added.
The suspect in the Texas massacre had been deported four times after entering the US illegally, ICE source told CNN.
Though the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said that Oropesa was arrested in the Cut and Shoot area, the FBI Houston office tweeted that he was discovered in the neighbouring city of Conroe.
The suspect would be held on five counts of murder with a bond set at $5 million, the sheriff said
Officials have said that Oropesa, 38, was involved in the massacre on Friday night after he was asked to stop shooting with his rifle near a neighbouring home. Investigators had initially started tracking Oropesa using his mobile hone but said that trail went cold on Saturday evening.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said that a tip from the FBI led police to the suspect’s location.
He said they just wanted to thank the person who had the bravery and courage to trace the suspect’s location.
Law enforcement officials also tracked Oropesa’s wife to a house near Cut and Shoot that was related to one of his family members, an official source told CNN. It was not immediately clear if that occurred before or after Oropesa’s arrest.
Texas Department of Public Safety members, US Marshals Service and US Customs and Border Patrol’s Border Patrol Tactical Unit raided the home and captured the suspect, an FBI Houston spokesperson said.
Authorities were now probing whether the suspect had any help before he went into hiding, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said.
Oropesa will be produced before a magistrate in San Jacinto County on Wednesday, a law enforcement source involved in the matter said. Authorities have 90 days to formally indict the suspect, the source said.
According to the source, the Mexican consulate would be formally notified of Oropesa’s circumstances on Wednesday.
Authorities spent days pleading with the public for any information. They used a lot of resources to find the perpetrator, including more than 250 police officers and a $80,000 reward for information that led to his capture.
The victims – all Honduran nationals – were identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her nine-year-old sson Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman; Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and José Jonathan Cásarez, 18.
How the attack unfolded
According to Wilson Garcia, whose wife and kid were slain, fifteen people were present in the home in Cleveland, an 8,000-person community northeast of Houston, including friends and godparents who had come to assist prepare for a church function.
He told CNN that Garcia and two other people had approached Oropesa’s yard about 10 to 20 minutes before the tragedy to request that he cease firing so near their home since Garcia’s kid was sleeping. The father said that they had urged Oropesa to shoot on the opposite side of his land.
Garcia stated he would contact the police when the guy refused.
Garcia recounted, “When we walked in, my wife spoke to the police, and we called five times as he was being more threatening.”
The father added, “We spotted him, he was leaving his property and cocked his revolver. He cocked his gun, and I advised my wife to get inside because he could come and threaten us. Because I’m a woman, my wife reasoned, “I don’t think he will fire at me, so you go inside. I’ll stay here at the door.”
Shortly after, the shooter burst into Garcia’s house and fatally shot his wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, in the entryway before killing three other adults and Garcia’s son, Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, according to the distraught father.
