Texas governor Greg Abbott announced a reward of $50,000 for information on the man believed to be responsible for the killing of five immigrants in Cleveland.
The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa, is accused of shooting his next-door neighbours when they complained about him firing rounds in his yard.
He remains at large despite a search involving more than 200 police personnel from multiple jurisdictions. Local officials and the FBI have also chipped in and brought the reward money amount to $80,000 for any information on Mr Oropesa’s whereabouts.
This comes after earlier reports that law enforcement officials had cornered the suspect.
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the five victims that were taken in this senseless act of violence,” governor Abbott said in a press release.
“I continue working with state and local officials to ensure they have all available resources to respond to this horrific crime. I thank the men and women in law enforcement who are tirelessly working to ensure this criminal is caught and brought to justice.”
The governor also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to “alert Operation Lone Star soldiers and troopers to be on the lookout for the criminal and any attempts to flee the country after taking the lives of five people”, according to the press statement.
The victims were identified on Sunday as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, her eight-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31 and Josué Jonatán Cáceres, 18, according to 12 News.
Several children were at the home when the violence unfolded.
“I can tell you right now, we have zero leads,” James Smith, the FBI special agent in charge, told reporters while asking the public for tips in the rural town, north of Houston, where the shooting took place just before midnight Friday.
Police recovered the AR-15-style rifle they said Mr Oropesa used in the shootings. Authorities were not sure if he was carrying another weapon after others were found in his home, but said he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Earlier reports by NPR suggested police had located and surrounded the suspect somewhere in the Houston area, but a Saturday night update by the San Jacinto County Sheriff office said Mr Oropesa was still at large. On Sunday night, the FBI said in a statement that the suspect is considered armed and dangerous and the public is advised not to approach him.
San Jacinto County sheriff Greg Capers said Mr Oropesa “could be anywhere”, adding that investigators have found a cell phone and clothing believed to belong to Mr Oropesa.
Wilson Garcia, who lost his wife and son in the mass shooting, said he had not even asked his neighbour to stop shooting his gun.
People in their rural town north of Houston are used to people firing their weapons to blow off steam, but it was late Friday night, and Mr Garcia had a month-old son who was crying.
So, Mr Garcia said, he and two other people went to his neighbour’s house to “respectfully” ask that he shoot farther away from their home.
“He told us he was on his property, and he could do what he wanted,” Mr Garcia said on Sunday after a vigil in Cleveland, Texas, for his nine-year-old son who was killed in the attack.
Mr Garcia called the police after the accused rejected his request.
And then, 10-20 minutes after Mr Garcia had walked back from Mr Oropesa’s house, the man started running toward him and reloading.
“I told my wife, ‘Get inside. This man has loaded his weapon’,” Mr Garcia said. “My wife told me to go inside because ‘he won’t fire at me, I’m a woman.’”
The gunman walked up to the home and began firing. Mr Garcia’s wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, was at the front door, and was the first to die.
The house held 15 people in all, several of them friends who had been there to join Mr Garcia’s wife on a church retreat. The gunman seemed intent on killing everyone, Mr Garcia said.
He likely fled the area on foot. During the early hours of the search, investigators found clothes and a phone while combing an area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said.
Authorities were able to identify Mr Oropesa by an identity card issued by Mexican authorities to citizens who reside outside the country, as well as doorbell camera footage. Mr Capers said police also interviewed the suspect’s wife multiple times.
He said he hoped the reward money would motivate people to provide information, and that there were plans to put up billboards in Spanish to spread the word.
