A search is currently underway for a man who killed five of his neighbours in Texas after an argument over noise from practising shooting with a semi-automatic weapon, according to police.
The law enforcement authority said investigators into the shooting tracked Oropeza with a cell phone but the trail went cold Saturday evening.
During a press conference, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said, “He could be anywhere now.”
The casualties also included an eight-year-old child and reports suggest all of the gunfire victims were from Hondurans.
The incident occurred on Friday night in the small town of Cleveland in San Jacinto County, located north of Houston. According to the local sheriff, Greg Capers, two women who were found dead on top of two living children.
“In my opinion, they were actually trying to take care of the babies and keep them alive,” Sheriff Capers told KTRK local station. Revealing more gory details of the crime, the sheriff added that all the victims had been shot “from the neck up, almost execution style, basically in the head”.
The 38-year-old suspect has been identified as Francisco Oropez, who is thought to be Mexican. He is still at large and is reported to be armed. He is charged with five counts of murder.
Police are searching for him and said he is believed to be hiding in a nearby forest. The police are making use of dogs and a drone to trace the suspect in hiding. According to the sheriff’s office, a call of “harassment” was made at approximately 23:30 local time on Friday (04:30 GMT Saturday).
The victims were reportedly attempting to put a baby to sleep and are understood to have requested Oropez to stop practicing shooting. The suspect who carried out the gun shooting was allegedly intoxicated at the time of the argument when the victims asked him to stop firing.
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Sheriff Capers said the man’s responded saying as, “I’ll shoot out in my front yard, do what I want to in my own residence.” Both sides went back to their homes after the altercation, and that’s when the shooter topped off his magazine, walked down his driveway into the people’s house, and started shooting, according to Sheriff Capers.
There were ten persons altogether on the premises at the time. The eight-year-old child passed away at a hospital, while the adults were pronounced dead on the spot. It is thought that the shooter utilised an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon.
Neighbour Veronica Pineda said she heard the shooting, but that the sound of gunfire was a regular thing and nothing unusual. “It’s normal, in this neighbourhood they’re always shooting. They’re always calling the cops and there’s nothing done for that.” “So yesterday I heard the shooting but I thought it was, like, a normal day. I never thought this was happening.”
Days before, a shooting at a gathering for teens in western Texas left nine people injured. Four teenagers were shot and killed two weeks ago in Alabama at a birthday celebration. According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, firearm-related events are the leading cause of mortality for children and teens in the US.
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