Five killed in Texas mass shooting

Four-day manhunt for a gunman in Texas Accused of killing five neighbors Officers, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding under a pile of laundry in the closet of a home.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested four days after the shooting in the city of Cleveland, about 72 km north of Houston, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.

They said Oropeza was arrested without incident near Conroe, about 32 km from the home, where authorities say Oropeza fled after shooting his neighbors and setting up a massive manhunt which had grown to more than 250 people from several jurisdictions.

The sheriff would not say whether Oropeza was armed or how officers discovered where he was.

Police used drones and scent-tracking dogs during an extensive search for Oropeza that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Governor Greg Abbott offered US$50,000 ($80,000) in reward money as the search dragged on late into the weekend and the FBI admitted they had little leads about Oropeza’s whereabouts.

The alleged shooter is a Mexican national who has been deported four times, according to US immigration officials. The gunman was first deported in March 2009 and last in July 2016. He was also deported in September 2009 and January 2012.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said that prior to the shooting, deputies had been called to the suspect’s home at least once before the Oropeza shooting round in his yard.

All the victims were residents of Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said that friends and family in the house tried to hide and protect themselves and the children when Oropeza walked up to the house and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door. Gave.

Garcia said Oropeza came running to their home after loading an AR-15 and two other men told him to stop firing rounds late at night because a child inside was trying to sleep. Garcia said Oropeza told him he could do whatever he wanted with his property.

While offering the reward, Abbott called the victims “illegal immigrants,” a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologized for Tuesday after a wide response to draw attention to the victims’ immigration status.

The victims were identified as 21-year-old Diana Velazquez Alvarado; Julissa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Lasso, 9.

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