As his month-old baby cried through the night, Wilson García just wanted his neighbor to shoot his rifle farther away.
Joined by two others, García “respectfully” asked Francisco Oropeza, 38, to change where he was firing off rounds on Friday night as more than a dozen people – some on a church retreat – gathered at the family home in Cleveland, Texas, a rural town north of Houston.
“He told us he was on his property, and he could do what he wanted,” García told the Associated Press on Sunday.
That simple request sparked just the latest mass killing in the United States, the 17th this year with four or more victims, according to the Gun Violence Archive resource, and on pace for a record. Oropeza would soon storm on to Garcia’s property, fire as many as 15 rounds, and kill five people, including Garcia’s wife – Sonia Argentina Guzmán – his nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso, and three others – Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and José Jonathan Casarez, 18.
Two women died shielding García’s infant and two-year-old daughter from Oropeza’s gunfire. The victims were all from Honduras.
Oropeza, who fled the scene and is considered armed and dangerous, remained at large as of Monday morning, with police frantically searching for him.
Officials recovered an AR-15 style rifle he allegedly used in the shooting, though they were unsure if Oropeza was carrying another weapon after others were found in his home.
Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, put up $50,000 in reward money while making sure to describe the dead as “illegal immigrants”. Remarks – largely coming from the political US right – about the immigration status of the victims and Oropeza, a Mexican who had reportedly previously been deported from the US, prompted the local San Jacinto county sheriff, Greg Capers, to say that was irrelevant to investigators.
“My heart is with this … boy,” Capers said. “He was in my county, five people died in my county, and that is where my heart is – in my county, protecting my people to the best of our ability.”
Local officials and the FBI also chipped in to the reward for information about Oropeza’s whereabouts, bringing the total to $80,000.
“I can tell you right now, we have zero leads,” James Smith of the FBI told reporters.
García recounted the final moments on Sunday after a memorial for his son.
After Oropeza refused to stop firing in his yard, García and his family called the police five times. Each time, the dispatcher assured him help was on the way. Later, when asked about response time to those calls, Capers told reporters that deputies got there as fast as they could. Just three deputies patrol 700 sq miles in the area.
Not long after Oropeza’s refusal, García could see him approaching his front yard, but did not know what he was doing.
García recalled seeing his neighbor reload his weapon and run toward him. “Get inside,” García recalled telling his wife, Sonia. “This man has loaded his weapon.”
García recalled Sonia telling him to get inside while saying: “He won’t fire at me – I’m a woman.” She was at the front door and was the first to die once Oropeza began firing, according to García.
García said Oropeza seemed intent on killing everyone.
During the early hours of the ensuing manhunt, investigators found clothes and a phone while combing an area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent of him, Capers told reporters. State and federal authorities helped Capers’ deputies search for Oropeza.
Authorities identified Oropeza based on an identity card issued by Mexican authorities to citizens who reside outside the country as well as doorbell camera footage. Police have also interviewed Oropeza’s wife multiple times.
Capers said he hoped the reward money would motivate people to provide information, and there were plans to put up billboards in Spanish to spread the word. “We’re looking for closure for this family,” he said.
Verónica Pineda, 34, who lives across the street from Oropeza’s home, said authorities asked if they could search her property to see if he might be hiding there. She said she did not know the man well but told the Associated Press his family had lived across the street for five or six years.
Pineda sometimes saw him, his wife, and son ride their horses through the neighborhood. She also recounted how neighbors had previously complained about people firing guns. Before Friday night’s shooting, sheriff’s deputies had previously visited Oropeza after they received complaints of gunfire.
“It is kind of scary,” she said. “You never know where he can be.”
By Sunday, police crime scene tape had been removed from around García’s home. Some people stopped by to leave flowers.
“I am trying to be strong for my children,” García said, crying. “My daughter sort of understands. It is very difficult when she begins to ask for mama and for her [older] brother.”
