A gunman shot dead five peopleincluding an 8-year-old boy, after neighbors asked him to stop firing an AR-15-type weapon on his front lawn in Cleveland, Texas, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Saturday.
Police were searching for the suspect, who used his AR-15 in carnage late FridayCapers told Reuters. Authorities charge Francisco Oropeza, 38, with five counts of murder and were searching for him Saturday morning, Capers said.
“He’s on the run in the Sam Houston National Forest, in San Jacinto County. We are tracking it with dogs and men on horseback and drones in the air,” he said.
Capers office officials received a call about a bullying situation in Cleveland around 11:31 p.m. local time, but when they arrived at the scene they found several victims who had been shot, he said.
There was a total of ten people in the house when the gunman entered and began shooting, Capers said, five of whom survived.
According to the police, all the victims were Honduranbut authorities did not release their names, ABC previously reported.
The suspect left his home Friday night and began shooting in his yard, which is when some of the victims came out to confront him, Capers said. “A man came up to the fence and said ‘hey, we’re trying to keep the baby asleep here,'” he recounted.
Both parties then returned to their homes, Capers said, but the gunman “reloaded his clip, moved up his driveway” to the street and then “started shooting into the house where the people were.” The sheriff said the victims were shot in the head..
