The Texas man accused of murdering five of his neighbors last week, including a 9-year-old, has been arrested.
According to the San Jacinto County District Attorney ‘s Office, Francisco Oropesa,38, was arrested in the town of Cut and Shoot, Texas about 10 miles west of Cleveland, Texas, the site of the massacre.
Jimmy Paul, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Houston field office said at a news conference on Tuesday that Oropesa was arrested at 6:30 p.m after a tip called into the FBI line around 5:15.
“He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry,” San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers added.
Oropesa’s arrest came four days after he opened fire in his neighbor’s home in the Trails End area in Cleveland, Texas after he was asked to shoot his gun farther away from the home because young children were trying to sleep.
Oropesa refused and the family called police.
Wilson Garcia, a survivor of the massacre, said about 10 to 20 minutes after Oropesa was asked to shoot farther away from the house, he saw him running toward their home and reloading his AR-15 style rifle.
“I told my wife to get inside because he cocked his gun and he might come threaten us. So my wife said, ‘You go inside, I don’t think he will fire at me because I’m a woman, I’ll stay here at the door,’”Garcia said.
Oropesa charged into their home killing Garcia’s wife Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, first.
“Then he went room to room, looking for people,” Garcia said.
Garcia’s 9-year-old son, Daniel Enrique Laso was also killed in the attack along with Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and José Jonathan Cásarez, 18.
The two women died while protecting Garcia’s baby and 2-year-old daughter.
Capers said that the victims were all “shot from the neck up almost execution-style.”
Oropesa was booked into the Montgomery County Jail on murder charges. He was being held on $5 million bond.
Oropesa is a Mexican national and has been deported from the United States four times. The last time was in 2016, and his current immigration status is still unclear. He was also convicted of driving while intoxicated back in 2012 in Montgomery County and was sentenced to serve time in jail.
