The scene of a shooting early on Saturday in Cleveland, Texas. A man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbors, killing several including an 8-year-old inside the house, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday. KTRK via Associated Press
A man killed five people, including an 8-year-old boy, with an AR-15-style weapon Friday night in an angry response to his neighbors’ request that he stop shooting in his yard while their baby was trying to sleep, Texas authorities said Saturday. The suspect was still on the loose as of Saturday afternoon, authorities later said at a news conference.
Instead of heeding the request, the man allegedly took the gun, went to the neighbors’ house and killed half the people inside. He then fled, sparking an overnight manhunt around Cleveland, Tex., that continued through Saturday afternoon.
“He could be anywhere right now,” James Smith, special agent in charge of the FBI Houston office, told reporters Saturday afternoon. “We believe he’s on foot but we don’t know.” Smith added that the suspect could be somewhere within a 10-20 square mile radius but that dogs lost his scent. Authorities located the gun allegedly used in the killings but are unsure if the suspect is still armed.
The mass killing of a family in their home was the latest act of retaliatory gun violence to traumatize an American community. The shooting renewed calls from gun control advocates for a federal ban on assault weapons, which have a unique ability to destroy the human body. It was at least the seventh incident this month in which an armed American shot people in response to regular, everyday interactions.
The family in Texas had lived on Walter Drive for about two years.
Police released the names of the victims: Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.
Their neighbor, Francisco Oropeza, 38, was charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told The Washington Post. Authorities believed he was about two miles from the area Saturday afternoon and were working to apprehend him, he said.
Ten people, all family members, were in the home during the shooting. Five survived, including three children. Three women and a man were killed, along with an 8-year-old boy who died later at a hospital, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook.
Two of the women who were killed were found lying on top of the surviving young children in a bedroom, “trying to protect them,” Capers told The Post by phone from the scene.
All five victims were shot in the head, Capers said.
“It’s horrific,” Capers said. “No one should ever have to look at this scene, the blood, the trauma that went on in that house.”
Authorities were searching for Oropeza in a wooded area near the neighborhood Saturday afternoon, Capers said. The FBI said Saturday afternoon that it was assisting the county sheriff’s office in the search and referred further questions to the office, which was leading the investigation.
Oropeza frequently shot his AR-15-style weapon in his yard, Capers said, and was doing so Friday when his neighbors asked him to stop about 11 p.m. He allegedly became angry after they said their baby was trying to sleep and, after the conversation, went to their home. Authorities saw video footage of Oropeza walking to the victims’ front door before going inside.
“The neighbors walked over and said … ‘Hey man, can you not do that, we’ve got an infant in here trying to sleep’ or whatever,” Capers said. “They went back in their house and then we have a video of him walking up their driveway with his AR-15.”
Vianey Balderas, who lives across the street from the family, said she first heard gunshots that night when a few people were outside. About 20 minutes later, Balderas heard about five more gunshots, then another 10, she told The Post.
“When I heard those gunshots, I didn’t think anything of it because in this neighborhood everyone has guns. Every weekend you hear gunshots,” she said in an interview in Spanish.
“People shoot in their backyards, after they drink alcohol, men take out guns at house parties and shoot the ground.”
Minutes later, Balderas, 27, heard a truck pulling away. She then saw one of her neighbors – the father of the children, she said – outside, begging for someone to call an ambulance. She said the family and Oropeza had quarreled before.
Law enforcement officers went to the home after receiving a report of “harassment” around 11:30 p.m., Capers told reporters. They found the four adults dead and took the 8-year-old to the hospital. The three surviving children also were taken to a hospital, Capers said, but they were not injured.
The victims had moved to Cleveland from Harris County, where Houston is located. Cleveland is about 40 miles northeast of downtown Houston.
They lived in a “regular country neighborhood” known as Trails End, Capers said. All of the victims were from Honduras, Capers said.
In a tweet in Spanish, Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina demanded that authorities apply “the full weight of the law” against the killer and expressed condolences for the family’s relatives.
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