UPDATE 4/29/2023 6:40 PM: After a day long manhunt in which officials stated they believed they had the suspect in this mass shooting contained within a mile or two size area, a bevy of federal law enforcement teams have joined in the search and declared they do not know where the suspect is; “10, maybe even 20 miles away”. Texans are asked to be watchful of surroundings and very careful; the suspect is considered armed and dangerous.
San Jacinto County officials note teams with the FBI, ATF, US Marshals, Homeland Security, (Texas) Department of Public Safety, Harris and Montgomery County Sheriff’s office teams and constables are joining with search teams from the TDC/ Texas Department of Criminal Justice in efforts to find and take into custody the Mexican national suspect in the overnight shooting deaths of five people, including a reported 8 year old boy and 15 year old girl. Officials say all were shot execution style in the head, and the shootings happened after the suspect entered the home of the neighbors after they’d asked for quiet because his gunfire was keeping a baby or toddler awake.
Officials are asking Texans to keep a watch for the suspect, and to call 9-1-1 if they suspect they may have seen him or anything suspicious, noting only law enforcement officers should engage with him.
The suspect is identified as a Mexican national who has previously been deported from the US two times; 38 or 39 year old Fransisco Orapeza.
(WBAP/KLIF) — A Texas man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbors, killing an 8-year-old and four others inside the house, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said Saturday.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities were still searching for the 39-year-old suspect following the overnight shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Houston. He said the suspect, whom he did not identify, used an AR-style rifle in the shooting.
Capers said there were 10 people in the house and that no one else was injured. He said two of the victims, all believed to be from Honduras, were found laying over two children inside.
“The Honduran ladies that were laying over these children were doing it in such an effort as to protect the child,” Capers said.
The confrontation followed family members walking up to the fence and asking the suspect to stop shooting rounds, Capers said. The suspect responded by telling them that it was his property, according to Capers, and that one person in the house got a video of the suspect walking up to the front door with the rifle.
Three of the victims were women and one was a man. Their names were not released. Capers said the victims were between the ages of 8 and about 40 years old.
Authorities have previously been to the suspect’s home, according to Capers. “Deputies have come over and spoke with him about him shooting his gun in the yard,” he said.
Capers said some of those in the house had just moved from Houston earlier in the week, but he did not know whether they were planning to stay there.
The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023. The violence is sparked by a range of motives: murder-suicides and domestic violence; gang retaliation; school shootings and workplace vendettas. All have taken the lives of four or more people at once since Jan. 1.
(Copyright 2023 WBAP/KLIF Newsroom News. All rights reserved. Contains material from the Associated Press.)