Officials had been searching for Francisco Oropesa, 38, since Friday night when he allegedly shot his neighbors in Cleveland, Texas, after one asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard.
Posted BY: NBC
The man accused of killing five of his neighbors with an AR-15 rifle in their Texas home was apprehended by law enforcement agents Tuesday, officials said.
Francisco Oropesa, 38, was taken into custody around 7 p.m. without incident, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.
He was apprehended in Cut and Shoot, Texas, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said.
Dillon had initially said authorities are awaiting fingerprints to confirm the person arrested is Oropesa. Oropesa has been taken to the Montgomery County Jail and is charged with first-degree murder, he said.
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The FBI said it was planning a news conference Tuesday evening about the case.
The arrest brings an end to the sprawling search that involved more than 250 law enforcement officers, the FBI and a reward of $80,000 for information.
The arrest comes four days after the Friday night carnage in which Oropesa went to the home in the Trails End area in Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston, and opened fire, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said.
Oropesa allegedly opened fire on neighbors after onecomplained that shots coming from his adjacent property were keeping an infant from sleeping, officials have said.
Wilson Garcia’s wife asked him to go to Oropesa’s residence and ask if he would stop shooting or move the gunfire. The request didn’t seem unreasonable, Garcia said, as they’d been on good terms with Oropesa.
“So we went and told the man to please stop shooting, or go continue shooting further away from the house. But he answered by saying he was in his property and could do whatever he wants,” Garcia told NBC News.
“I said, ‘OK that’s fine. It’s your property, but could you please move further away or turn it down, that’s all,'” Garcia said. “Then he began insulting us and we told him we were calling the cops.”
The victims, all believed to be from Honduras, have been identified as 9-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.
Garcia has identified Laso as his son and Guzman as his wife and the child’s mother.
