Shooter kills 8-year-old and four others in Cleveland, Tex., sheriff says - The Washington Post

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A man using an AR-15-style weapon shot and killed five people Friday, including an 8-year-old — an angry response to the neighbors' request that he stop shooting in his yard while their baby was trying to sleep, Texas authorities said Saturday. The gunman then fled, prompting an ongoing manhunt.

Authorities charged Francisco Oropeza, 38, with five counts of murder and were searching for him Saturday morning, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told The Washington Post. Authorities believed he was about two miles from the area and were working to apprehend him, he said.

Ten people, all family members, were in the Cleveland, Tex., home during the shooting. Three women, a man and an 8-year-old boy were killed, Capers said. Five others survived, including three children.

The suspect was the victims' neighbor and went to their home Friday night after they asked him to stop shooting an AR-15-style weapon in his front yard because of the noise, Capers said.

Oropeza frequently shot the gun in his yard, Capers said, and allegedly became angry when the neighbors said their baby was trying to sleep around or after 11 p.m. Authorities saw video footage of Oropeza walking up to the victims' front door before going inside.

"The neighbors walked over and said … 'Hey man, can you not do that, we've got an infant in here trying to sleep' or whatever," Capers said. "They went back in their house and then we have a video of him walking up their driveway with his AR-15."

All five victims were shot in the head, he said. Two of the women who were killed were found lying on top of the surviving young children in a bedroom, "trying to protect them," Capers told The Post by phone from the scene.

"It's horrific," Capers said. "No one should ever have to look at this scene, the blood, the trauma that went on in that house."

Vianey Balderas, who lives across the street from the family, said she first heard some gunshots when a few people were outside. About 20 minutes later, Balderas heard about five more gunshots, then another 10, she told The Washington Post.

"When I heard those gunshots, I didn't think anything of it because in this neighborhood everyone has guns. Every weekend you hear gunshots," she said in an interview in Spanish. "People shoot in their backyards, after they drink alcohol, men take out guns at house parties and shoot the ground."

Minutes later, Balderas, 27, heard a truck pulling away. She then saw one of her neighbors — the father of the children, she said — outside, begging for someone to call an ambulance.

Law enforcement officers received a report of "harassment" about 11:30 p.m. and went to the home, Capers told reporters.

The adults were declared dead at the scene, and the 8-year-old died at a hospital, according to the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office. The three surviving children were taken to a hospital and were not injured, Capers said.

Cleveland is about 40 miles northeast of downtown Houston. All of the victims were from Honduras, and the suspect was from Mexico, Capers said.

The victims had moved to Cleveland from Harris County, where Houston is located. They lived in a "regular country neighborhood" known as Trails End, Capers said, estimating that their house was between 1,500 and 1,800 square feet.

The shooter fled after the killings but was believed to be about 2 miles away from the home Saturday morning, Capers said. Authorities issued a warrant for Oropeza's arrest Saturday, the news release said.

"We're searching for him," Capers told local news station KHOU. "We don't believe him to be in the area."

Balderas, who has lived in the neighborhood for three years, described the family as happy and kind. It moved in about two years ago, she said. The children's father, an electrician, helped neighbors around the house, and the family aided Balderas when her father died, she said.

"They were a very happy family. Christian. They were kind," she said. "They would never say no to us. They were always helping us. … They were always there."

Balderas said she stayed up until 5 a.m. in fear because the gunman had not been apprehended.

"It hurts a lot, because I did love the family a lot. I am now afraid to be at home," she said. "This shatters the sense of safety of being in your own home, especially because they are neighbors whom I see every day. … [He] went in to shoot people who were getting ready to go to bed."

This was the year's 19th U.S. shooting to kill at least four people, not including the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks U.S. shootings.

The killings drew calls from gun control advocates for a federal ban of AR-15-style weapons, whose sale is banned in a few states. Washington became the latest on Wednesday, when its Democratic governor signed a ban into law.

President Biden urged Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban after a shooter killed six people with an AR-15-style rifleat a Nashville school last month. Republicans in Congress have dismissed the idea of such legislation.

After Friday night's shooting, Kris Brown, president of the Brady gun control organization, said AR-15s "have no place in civilian life."

"These weapons of war were designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible, which is why they are the weapon of choice for America's mass shooters — and why Congress must ban them immediately," Brown said in a statement.

Texas has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country, according to the nonprofit Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports stricter firearms laws. There are some restrictions, though, including a state law barring people from displaying "a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm."

The killings add to a growing list of recent shootings carried out by armed Americans who have fired in response to what could have been normal, everyday interactions.

This month, an Illinois man was fatally shot by a neighbor angry about his leaf blower; a 20-year-old woman was shot and killed by a New York homeowner after accidentally pulling into the wrong driveway; a 6-year-old and her father were shot by a neighbor in North Carolina after the child's basketball rolled into his yard.

Those violent confrontations followed the April 13 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who was picking up his siblings and was shot by a White man when he accidentally rang the doorbell of the wrong home.