A four-day manhunt for Texas shooting suspect Francisco Oropeza has ended a short distance from the site of the massacre.
Oropeza, a 38-year-old immigrant from Mexico who had been deported four times, is suspected of fatally shooting five of his neighbors with an assault-style rifle, including a 9-year-old boy, after being asked to stop firing off rounds in his yard on Friday due to a sleeping baby.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that Oropeza was taken into custody “without incident” on Tuesday evening. The shooting occurred in neighboring San Jacinto County, near the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston.
The FBI’s Houston field office said Oropeza was captured following an anonymous tip that led officers to a home in Conroe, about 20 miles from the shooting site. He was arrested at around 6:45 p.m. local time.
“We now have this man in custody,” San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said during a press conference on Tuesday night. “He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry … He is uninjured and he is currently being taken to my facility in Coldspring.”
“[The victims] can rest easy now,” he continued. “Because he is behind bars.”
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Multiple videos shared on social media appeared to show a calm and handcuffed Oropeza being arrested by officers in a residential neighborhood.
The victims, all immigrants from Honduras, were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.