The man suspected of killing five people, including a nine-year-old boy, with an AR-15-style weapon after neighbors asked him to stop shooting in his yard could be anywhere by now, authorities in Houston, Texas, have said.
More than 200 police from multiple jurisdictions were involved in the search for 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza as the FBI acknowledged it had “zero leads” nearly two days after the shooting occurred near the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston. Authorities put up $80,000 in reward money for information about his whereabouts.
James Smith, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Houston office, said the suspect “could be anywhere right now”.
“We consider him armed and dangerous … We believe he’s on foot but we don’t know,” Smith added.
Smith appealed to the public for information “because right now we’re just we’re running into dead ends.”
San Jacinto county sheriff Greg Capers told reporters late on Saturday the suspect could now be as far as “10 or 20 miles” from the murder scene.
Capers said that authorities have located the gun they believe was used in the killings but say they think the man may still be armed. He also said they found clothes and a phone while combing a rural area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent.
The shooting occurred after neighbors asked the suspect to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep. He allegedly responded by telling them that it was his property, Capers said, and then went to their house with a weapon.
The victims are reported to have been between the ages of nine and 31 years old. All were believed to be from Honduras and had moved into the house earlier in the week. They have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.
Two of the victims were found in a bedroom lying over two children in an apparent attempt to shield them. Three children found covered in blood in the home were taken to a hospital but found to be uninjured.
The attack happened near the town of Cleveland, north of Houston, on a rural street where single-story homes sit on 1-acre lots and are surrounded by a thick canopy of trees.
Capers said his sheriff deputies had been to Oropeza’s home at least once before and spoken with him about “shooting his gun in the yard”. A neighbor told the Associated Press that Oropeza had threatened to kill his dog after it got loose.
“I tell my wife all the time, ‘Stay away from the neighbors. Don’t argue with them. You never know how they’re going to react,’” Rene Arevalo Sr said. “I tell her that because Texas is a state where you don’t know who has a gun.”
On Sunday, police crime scene tape had been removed from around the victims’ home. Some people stopped by to leave flowers.
An FBI agent, several Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and other officers could be seen walking around the neighborhood, going door to door and trying to speak with neighbors. The agent and officers declined to comment about what they were doing. One trooper stopped a red truck and asked to look inside before letting the driver continue on his way.
The shooting is believed to be at least the seventh this month that has occurred in response to unexceptional interactions, reported the Washington Post, and adds to the record pace of mass-shooting gun violence in the US this year.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
A previous version of this story, based on information from the FBI, incorrectly stated the age of Daniel Enrique Laso as eight years old. His father said the boy was nine.
