SAN JACINTO COUNTY, Texas – Five people were shot and killed early Saturday morning in southeast Texas, according to law enforcement authorities.
The San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call regarding “harassment” around midnight. Upon arrival at a property in the 100 block of Walters Road in the Trails End area of Cleveland — about 45 miles north of Houston — deputies found five people had been shot. Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, and a fifth victim was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead, Fox News reported.
The Montgomery County SWAT team deployed to assist and cleared several properties near the crime scene, although the suspect fled the location and the search remains ongoing.
According to the sheriff’s office, three additional victims were transported to the hospital “covered in blood,” The extent of their trauma was not immediately clear.
Sheriff Greg Capers told Bluebonnet News that the victims originated from Honduras. He said a total of 10 people were living in the residence. Among the dead are four adults, one male and three females, and an 8-year-old child.
Moreover, all three surviving victims who were transported to the trauma center are children. Two other people were medically evaluated at the crime scene and released, law enforcement officials said.
“When we got here, the two females in the bedroom were actually laying over the top of the younger children, two of the three younger children” that survived, Capers noted.
Officials are withholding the identities of the victims pending notification of relatives. Investigators have identified a perpetrator in the shooting and are actively looking for him. The man believed to be the mass murderer is a “Mexican male from Mexico.” The sheriff’s office has a copy of his consular identification card.
Capers said the suspect has been known to fire a .223 rifle in the front yard of the residence. The sheriff’s office discovered shell casings there.
The suspect is on the run and not believed to be in the area. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest and assigned a $5 million bond. His identity was not released at the time of publication.
The suspect was reportedly a 39-year-old man who lived next door. The confrontation followed family members walking up to the fence and asking the suspect to stop shooting his gun, Capers said.
The suspect responded by telling them that it was his property, according to the sheriff, and that one person in the house got a video of the suspect walking up to the front door with the rifle, NBC DFW reported.
Law enforcement authorities have previously been to the suspect’s home, according to Capers. “Deputies have come over and spoke with him about him shooting his gun in the yard,” he said.
Texas Rangers are assisting with the ongoing homicide investigation.
UPDATE: The suspect was identified as 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza. He remained at large more than 18 hours after the shooting, NBC DFW reported.
