5 murdered for complaining to neighbor - shooting off gun

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Authorities are hoping that an $80,000 reward will help locate a Texas man who allegedly shot his neighbors after they asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard. Officials said during a press conference Sunday that so far their search has yielded "zero leads."

On Sunday afternoon, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers and FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge (SAC) James Smith held a press conference offering the latest updates in the search for 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa, who fled his Cleveland, Texas, home Friday night after allegedly shooting five people dead, including an 8-year-old boy.

Capers said there were over 200 officers searching for Oropesa, going door to door asking neighbors for any information that will lead to his arrest.

He said that Texas Governor Greg Abbot has offered $50,000 for his capture, and other counties have chipped in $5,000 for a total of $55,000. With the FBI offering $25,000, the total reward money rose to $80,000, Smith said.

Smith implored people in the community to come forward with information, saying Oropesa has contacted some of his friends since the shooting.

Smith said the search has run into dead ends and authorities have "no idea" where he could be and have "zero leads." He said authorities are hoping the large reward can act as an incentive for someone to come forward with any tips.

"We cannot continue down this path until we get him apprehended and arrested," he said. "We're asking everyone to bring this monster to justice."

Capers added that he has declined to attend prior engagements, including a vigil for the 8-year-old boy killed in the shooting, because his "main intent and focus is 100 percent capturing this suspect."

"My heart is with this 8-year-old boy," Capers said. "I don't care if he was here illegally or legally, he was in my county. Five people died in my county, that is where my heart is, in my county protecting my people."

I bet he’s offed himself.

Maybe. But you’d think a guy that ditched his phone and clothes had a will to escape and survive and if he was gonna eat the business end of a gun he’d have just done it at the scene.

Francisco Oropesa, the man on the run after allegedly killing five Texas family members, is a Mexican national who was previously deported four times, a source familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

Oropesa, 38, was deported on March 17, 2009, after an immigration judge ordered his removal, the source said. He unlawfully returned to the U.S., and he was then apprehended and deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016, the source said.

Oropesa had also been convicted in Montgomery County, Texas, in January 2012 of driving while intoxicated and served time in jail, the source said.

Once the adrenaline wears off people sometimes reconsider their situation.

The 911 calls began long before the gunfire.

Wilson Garcia said he and his wife first called police late Friday night after their neighbor refused to stop shooting a gun outside and threatened them.

They waited.

Then the neighbor turned up at the house, occupied by several members of an extended family from Honduras. He had a rifle. He began shooting.

Ramiro Guzman said he ducked into a closet with his wife and infant son. He called 911 over and over. Each time, he said, a dispatcher told him that deputies were already there.

They weren’t.

“They would cut off the call. I would call back again,” Guzman recalled in an interview. “Then I called my aunt who lives two blocks away to see if they’d answer her. I thought maybe they didn’t believe me and that’s why they didn’t want to help, but maybe they’d believe her.”

Garcia and Guzman recalled their ordeals Monday as the hunt for the suspected killer, Francisco Oropesa, dragged into a third day. Both questioned why deputies didn’t arrive earlier.

“It was half an hour after we first started calling,” Guzman said. “I wonder if they had come in those 30 minutes this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe my family would still be alive.”

Authorities in San Jacinto County, where the shooting happened, have not responded to requests for records that would show how many calls for help were made from the house and how long it took for officers to arrive. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers, whose deputies responded to the scene, could not be reached for comment Monday.

The location of the shootings, in the southern tip of the county, makes it hard for law enforcement to reach, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said. More than half of the county is the Sam Houston National Forest, with few roads that cut through. In ideal conditions, with no traffic, it would take no less than 45 minutes to reach the scene from the county’s northern boundary, Dillon said. The neighborhood where the shooting took place has dirt roads pocked with potholes, he added.

Dillon also noted that the 911 calls began as a harassment complaint, a fairly common allegation that would not typically be prioritized.

A man suspected of killing five of his neighbours in a shooting near Houston on Friday has been arrested.

Francisco Oropesa, 38, was arrested in the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas, in a home hiding "underneath some laundry", Sheriff Greg Capers said.

The suspect was taken into custody by members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or Bortac, a specialised unit, Mr Capers, sheriff of San Jacinto County, said.

The man was captured in a property just one county over - about 10 miles (16km) - from where the shooting took place.

The suspect was arrested for five counts of murder after a member of the public contacted the FBI tip line, officials said in a news conference on Tuesday evening.

The arrest was made just over an hour after the tip was received, officials said, as they praised the bravery of the person who phoned it in.

Authorities had offered a reward of $80,000 (£64,000) for information leading to his arrest and this money will be given to the person who called in the tip off, officials confirmed.

Mr Capers said an investigation is under way into how the suspect obtained the weapon used.

A woman identified as the wife of the Texas man suspected of killing five people –including a 9-year–boy– was arrested just after midnight on Wednesday for allegedly helping him evade capture, authorities said.

Divimara Lamar Nava, 52, was charged with "hindering the apprehension of a known felon," a felony, said the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in a statement on social media. She is being held on a $250,000 bond, jail records show.

Although Nava has been identified as the wife of the suspect, Francisco Oropesa, jail records list her as "not married."

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office released a video of a Wednesday court hearing for Nava. She was being held on a third-degree felony count of hindering the apprehension of a fugitive. Prosecutors alleged that Nava attempted to assist Oropesa's efforts to escape to Mexico.