(Trends Wide) — The man suspected of killing five people Friday night in Cleveland, Texas, has a history of erratic behavior with firearms, according to a neighbor.
On November 20, 2021, Daniela Medina hosted a christening celebration at her home in the same neighborhood where Francisco Oropesa shot dead his own neighbors after they had asked him to stop shooting weapons because their newborn baby was trying to sleep.
Medina, 33, told Trends Wide that the night of the party a DJ was playing music in his front yard. Just after midnight, a neighbor asked her to turn down the music. Medina said he complied by asking the DJ to turn off the music.
Francisco Oropesa was at the party with his wife and son. Medina said that his eldest son was a friend of the son of the alleged attacker.
The neighbor’s request to turn off the music angered Oropesa, Medina said. After the conversation with the neighbor, Medina explained that Oropesa took out a 9mm pistol and began shooting at the ground. He said that he emptied an entire cartridge of ammunition in a drunken fit.
Sonia Argentina Guzmán and her son, Daniel Enrique Laso Guzmán, were shot to death by a neighbor on April 28 in Cleveland, Texas, local officials said. (Photo: Family photo)
“I was drunk,” Medina told Trends Wide. “He was trying to keep his balance as he fired the gun.”
Medina said the incident was terrifying and that she asked her husband to make sure Oropesa left the party immediately. “It’s over. No more with him,” Medina recalls that she told her husband that night. “Tell him, ‘You can go home.'”
Medina said that was the last time the families spent time together. He refused to allow his children to visit the Oropesa house because the man used to display different weapons that he owned, including an AR-15 and a revolver.
The suspect was removed by ICE four times
The man wanted in the fatal shooting of five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy, last week in Cleveland, Texas, entered the US illegally and had been removed by immigration officials at least four times, he said a source from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
The suspect, identified as Francisco Oropesa Pérez-Torres by ICE, was first removed by an immigration judge in March 2009, the ICE source said.
“At an unknown time and place, Pérez-Torres re-entered the United States illegally, and was detained and removed several more times by ICE in September 2009, January 2012, and July 2016,” the source said.
Francisco Oropesa, 38, is armed and considered dangerous, according to an FBI agent.
Credit: San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office
Details of the incidents were not immediately available.
Oropesa’s current immigration status is unclear, and it is unknown how long he had been in the United States since his last removal.
The suspect was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2012 in Montgomery County, Texas, and was sentenced to prison, the ICE official said. Trends Wide is working to determine what jail time he served.
An exhaustive search yields no clues.
A collective reward of US$80,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of 38-year-old Oropesa.
“We consider him armed and dangerous,” said James Smith, the FBI special agent in charge of Houston. “He’s out there and he’s a threat to the community.”
Francisco Oropea has a large tattoo of what appears to be an Aztec woman on his left forearm, the FBI’s Houston office said. Credit: FBI Houston
Authorities had “zero leads” to Oropesa’s location as of Sunday afternoon, Smith said, adding that the Mexican national could be anywhere.
Oropesa’s wife has been interviewed multiple times and is in “constant contact” with investigators, the sheriff said.
In the past, the suspect’s wife and Garcia’s wife “always chatted,” and the two families had no problems, Garcia said.
The suspect “even helped us cut down a tree and would come over to the house to chat,” Garcia said.
But something triggered Oropesa the night of the massacre, when he tried to shoot the survivors before fleeing, the grieving father said.
The large reward for Oropesa’s arrest will be advertised on Spanish-language billboards in the area, urging the public to submit tips, the sheriff said.
“I can guarantee that he has contacted some of his friends,” said Smith, the FBI agent. “We just don’t know which friends they are, and that’s what we need from the public, any kind of information.”
Timeline of the shooting
Between 10 and 20 minutes before the massacre, Wilson García and two other men had approached Oropesa’s patio to ask her to stop firing her rifle so close to her house because her baby was sleeping, García told Trends Wide. Oropesa had been asked to shoot across his property, he said.
The suspect refused and Garcia said he would call the police.
“We went in and my wife was talking to the police, and we called five times because he was being more threatening,” Garcia recalled.
“We saw him, he was coming off his property and he cocked his gun,” the father said. “I told my wife to go inside because she had cocked the gun and she could come to threaten us. So my wife said: ‘You come in, I don’t think he’ll shoot me because I’m a woman, I’ll stay here at the door.'” .
Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21, was one of the five people killed. Her partner, Jefrinson Rivera, 23, said they had been together for 6 years. Credit: Family Photography
The shooter later arrived at Garcia’s home and shot his wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, at the door, before killing three other adults and Garcia’s son, Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, the grieving father said.
Authorities rushed to the scene as quickly as they could, Capers said. But his small force covers a large county, he said, and the house is about 15 minutes outside of town.
The other victims were identified as Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and José Jonathan Cásarez, 18. Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzmán turned 9 in January, García said; authorities had previously said he was 8 years old.
A GoFundMe account was created to help the families of the deceased.
— With information from Ed Lavandera, Holly Yan, Elizabeth Wolfe and Rosa Flores
