The suspect in a murder rampage this Saturday that resulted in the deaths of five Texans is now in custody.
A days-long manhunt by Texan officers and a tip given to the FBI resulted in suspect Francisco Oropesa‘s capture at his partner’s home on Tuesday night.
The suspect was found hiding under the laundry in a closet. It is unclear who tipped off the FBI to his location. Both Oropesa and his partner, Divimara Lavar Nava, were booked into Montgomery County jail.
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The arrests come after Oropesa allegedly murdered five of his neighbors over the weekend for threatening to call the police because the suspect refused to stop firing his rifle in his backyard, causing a disturbance.
Oropesa is being held on five counts of murder with a bond standing at $5 million. He could potentially have charges upgraded to capital murder, which is punishable by the death penalty in Texas. Nava is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, a third-degree felony.
Oropesa is a Mexican national and records show he had been deported four times from 2009 until 2016. This case is causing law officials to more closely examine the U.S. immigration system, as many wonder how Oropesa had been living in Texas after being deported numerous times over the years.
Law officials believe they have recovered the weapon used in the murders. “As of now, we may have the weapon, but we have to wait for ballistics [testing],” said Chief Deputy Tim Kean at a news conference this morning outside the county jail.
The victims have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, 9; Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and José Jonathan Cásarez, 18. They were all Honduran nationals.
This massacre is another one of the nearly 200 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2023.
