The FBI said Tuesday it expanded its search “across the border” for the suspect wanted in the deadly shooting of five neighbors, including a child, in Cleveland, Texas.
“Francisco Oropesa could be anywhere,” FBI Houston tweeted Tuesday morning. “The FBI is working with law enforcement agencies across the state, country and across the border. We’re leaving no stone unturned. If anyone has any photos or security camera video they’d like law enforcement to see, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI.”
Oropesa, a Mexican national who previously has been deported five times, is accused of entering his neighbor’s home before midnight Friday and shooting five people dead, including a third-grade boy. Others in the household had asked Oropesa to stop firing a rifle in his yard that late because a 1-month-old baby was trying to sleep.
An $80,000 reward is being offered for his capture. The deceased victims were from Honduras.
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FBI Houston released another photo of Francisco Oropesa, saying search efforts have expanded across the border in Mexico. (FBI via AP)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whose office contributed $50,000 of the reward money for the suspect’s capture, has reportedly faced some criticism for referring to the deceased victims as “illegal immigrants” in the same statement also offering condolences to the family.
In a statement cited by the Texas Tribune Monday, Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze said the governor’s office has since learned that at least one of the deceased might have been in the U.S. legally.
“We regret if the information was incorrect and detracted from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal,” Eze reportedly said. “Any loss of life is a tragedy, and our hearts go out to the families who have lost a loved one.”
In the initial announcement Sunday, the governor’s office said a $50,000 reward was being offered for a Texas Department of Public Safety Top 10 fugitive “who is in the country illegally and killed five illegal immigrants.” Abbott added that “our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the five victims that were taken in this senseless act of violence.”
FBI Houston released the newest images of Francisco Oropesa and a prominent tattoo on his left forearm. The FBI said the suspect will be referred to by the last name Oropesa to better reflect his identity in law enforcement systems. (FBI Houston)
The Republican governor further condemned the “horrific crime” and alerted DPS Director Steve McCraw and Texas Military Department Adjunct General Thomas Suelzer 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,” Abbott’s office said Sunday.
Law enforcement officers wait at the end of a road after a possible shooting suspect sighting Monday, May 1, 2023, near Conroe, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Oropesa, who also sometimes uses the surname Perez-Torres, is a Mexican national who was previously ordered removed by an immigration judge March 16, 2009, and subsequently removed by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston to Mexico March 17, 2009, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Fox News.
At an unknown time and location, Oropesa unlawfully reentered the United States and was apprehended and removed several more times by ICE ERO in September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016. He has also been previously convicted in Montgomery County, Texas, of driving while intoxicated in January 2012 and sentenced to serve time in jail.
As a result of the April 29 incident, the Cold Spring Texas Sheriff’s Office issued an arrest warrant for Oropesa for homicide, the spokesperson added.
Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 9, were among the five people murdered in Cleveland, Texas. (Fox News)
A source with the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Oropesa had been deported five times between 2009-2016.
The deceased victims have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, age 9, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.
“My heart is with this … little boy. I don’t care if he was here legally. I don’t care if he was here illegally. 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,” San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told reporters in an update Sunday afternoon.
Local residents speak with authorities as they search wooded areas in Cleveland, Texas, Monday, May 1, 2023, for a suspect who fatally shot five neighbors. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Jefrinson Josué Rivera, the longtime partner of Velasquez Alvarado, spoke with ABC News and reportedly called Abbott’s use of the term illegal immigrants “inhumane.”
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, said Abbott stooped to a “new low” and is doing nothing to fight against gun violence.
“Greg, how was an undocumented person able to obtain an AR-15 in the first place? I’ll tell you why. It’s because you and other Republicans have made safe gun laws nonexistent,” Gutierrez wrote.
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In response, Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi wrote, “The illegal alien was able to get a gun because policies [Gutierrez] supports allowed him in the country after he was deported multiple times. The gun policies that he supports would leave you defenseless to criminals like this.
“When you’re a senator who supports open border policies that likely led to this tragedy, maybe shut the hell up.”
Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
