A Texas resident went to his neighbor’s home and brutally murdered five people, including an 8-year-old boy, because they asked him to keep the noise down as they tried to sleep.
Summary
A Texas resident went to his neighbor’s home and brutally murdered five people, including an 8-year-old boy, because they asked him to keep the noise down as they tried to sleep.
- The brutal attack occurred in Cleveland, Texas, a town in San Jacinto County in the eastern half of the state. The family allegedly asked the suspect to stop firing his AR-15 style rifle in the air so their baby could sleep before he stormed their house and opened fire.
- According to police, there were 10 people in the house at the time of the shooting. Five residents survived Oropreza’s drunken rampage, including three children.
- The victims aged between 8 and 40, and four of the victims died at the scene. The eight-year-old boy who died was flown to a hospital where he died.
- The victims were all from Honduras, and among the dead included two women who were found lying on top of two children who survived, protecting them.
- Police identified the suspect as Francisco Oropeza, 38. Oropeza remains at large a day after the shooting and may still be armed. Oropeza allegedly attacked his neighbors shortly before midnight on Friday.
- The Washington Post identified the dead: Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.
- According to CNN, police have found doorbell camera footage from the victims’ home that shows the suspect approaching the residence with his rifle.
- The New York Times identified the owner of the home as Wilson Garcia, whose baby could not sleep through the sound of gunfire next door. Besides the five people killed “almost execution-style,” Garcia’s wife Sonia Guzman Taibo was also wounded in the attack.
- Breitbart covered San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers’ comments about what prompted the massacre. Capers told the media, “My understanding is that the victims, they came over to the fence and said ‘Hey could [you not do your] shooting out in the yard? We have a young baby that’s trying to go to sleep,’ and he had been drinking and he says ‘I’ll do what I want to in my front yard.’”
- Fox News reported police appear to have few leads in the hunt for Oropeza. Capers told the press Oropreza “could be anywhere now” and federal law enforcement identified him as “armed and dangerous.”
- The Wall Street Journal reported authorities recovered a weapon matching the description of the murder weapon from the suspect’s house, along with at least three other firearms.
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
