Texas Mass Shooting
United States Texas City is still shrouded with dark clouds of crime, murder, mass shootings and blood baths. According to the authorities, a man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbours, killing an eight-year-old and four others inside a house near Houston, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep.
The suspect is identified as 38-year-old, Francisco Oropeza.
Official Statements
Taking notes from this horrifying attack which took live even of a child, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities were still searching for Francisco Oropeza following the shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 72 km north of Houston. He said Oropeza used an AR-style rifle in the attack, which happened shortly before midnight Friday.
“All of his rounds were from the neck up, so basically in the head,” Capers said.
The attack was the latest act of gun violence in what has been a record pace of mass shootings in the US so far this year, some of which have also involved semiautomatic rifles.
In recent cases, the mass killings have played out in a variety of places — a Nashville school, a Kentucky bank, a Southern California dance hall, and now a rural Texas neighbourhood inside a single-story home.
Scent-tracking dogs & drones used
By Saturday morning, Capers said authorities were using scent-tracking dogs and an overhead drone in the search for Oropeza, who they believe was intoxicated at the time of the shooting and then fled toward a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene.
Moreover, the Sheriff said that there were 10 people in the house, some of whom has just moved there earlier in the week, however, no one else was injured. He said two of the victims, all believed to be from Honduras, and were found lying over two children in a bedroom.
Two other victims, a male and female, were found by the front door and the slain child was in the front room. He said three other “blood-covered” children were found in the home and taken to a hospital, where they were determined to be uninjured.
Capers said, “The Honduran ladies that were laying over these children were doing it in such an effort as to protect the child.”
The confrontation followed family members walking up to the fence and asking the suspect to stop shooting rounds.
According to the cops, the suspect responded by telling them that it was his property and that one person in the house got a video of the suspect walking up to the front door with the rifle.
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Details of deceased
Briefing about the deceased, the County Sherrif said that three of the victims were women and one was a man. Their names were not released. He said the victims were between the ages of eight and about 40 years old.
Further, he said his deputies had been to Oropeza’s home at least once before and spoken with him about “shooting his gun in the yard.” It was not immediately clear whether any action was taken at the time.
Capers said the new arrivals in the home had moved from Houston earlier in the week, but he did not know whether they were planning to stay there.
18 mass shootings since January
Across the United States since January 1, there have been at least 18 shootings that left four or more people dead, according to reports.
The violence is sparked by a range of motives: murder-suicides and domestic violence; gang retaliation; school shootings and workplace vendettas.
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