Police continue Manhunt for suspect in execution-style shooting that killed five family members including an 8-year-old boy.
Authorities continue to search for the suspect in connection with an “execution style” shooting that killed five members of a family, including an eight-year-old boy.
The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, 38, was armed with a black AR-15 semi-automatic rifle when he went to the home in the Trails End area in Cleveland around 11:30 p.m. Friday, April 28, and opened fire, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said.
The FBI had previously spelled the suspect’s surname as “Oropeza”, but changed it to “Oropesa”, on Sunday, “to better reflect the suspect’s identity in law-enforcement systems,” the FBI Houston office tweeted.
Authorities believed that they had located the suspect in a search area of about 2 miles, but later said he might have slipped through it when they found his clothing and cell phone.
“He could be anywhere now,” Sheriff Greg Capers said at a news conference.
James Smith, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Houston-area office, urged anyone who spots the suspect to call 911.
“We consider him armed and dangerous,” he said. “He is out there, and he’s a threat to the community.”
Authorities are offering an $80,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s capture, they announced Sunday.
The state of Texas is offering $50,000 of the total reward money, and Multi-County Crime Stoppers, a local nonprofit organization, is offering $5,000 more. The FBI is offering another $25,000, Smith said.
Smith said Sunday that authorities are “running into dead ends” as he appealed to the public to share any relevant information.
“Right now, we have zero leads of him,” he added.
Capers identified the five people who were killed as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.
He said earlier that all were from Honduras.
