Suspected Texas mass shooter tried to escape to Mexico, prosecutor says
A man suspected of killing five of his neighbors in Texas after they asked him to stop shooting his gun near their home hid out just miles away from the slayings while he and his domestic partner plotted his escape to Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.
Francisco Oropeza showered and slept at a house outside the city of Conroe while his partner, Divimara Lamar Nava, got him doughnuts from a nearby store, a prosecutor said. Lamar Nava also acknowledged that she’d delivered a message from Oropeza to his cousins in the area asking for their help getting him out of the country, the prosecutor said at her probable cause hearing. The cousins refused to help.
Authorities believe Lamar Nava was talking with investigators while she was trying to help Oropeza, San Jacinto County Dist. Atty. Todd Dillon said at a news conference.
Oropeza, 38, was arrested Tuesday evening at the house, just 20 miles from Cleveland, Texas, where the shootings took place. Acting on a tip, authorities found him hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet after a four-day search.
Lamar Nava was arrested at the house on Wednesday. She is being held at the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon. Her bail has been set at $250,000.
Authorities identified Lamar Nava as Oropeza’s wife, though jail records list her as not being married but sharing a home address with him.
The slayings Friday sent shudders through a nation already dealing with a wave of shootings that have put the U.S. on a torrid pace for mass killings this year.
A man whose wife and son were killed with three other people says the attack began after he asked a neighbor to shoot his gun farther away from his home.
Outside the Conroe-area home where the pair were taken into custody, yellow police tape could be seen in both the front and back Wednesday, although the officers were gone.
Neighbor Angel Lozano recalled looking up as he unloaded tools from his truck Tuesday night to see unmarked law enforcement vehicles streaming onto his normally quiet street.
“A bunch of people got out with guns, and they went straight to the house and surrounded the area,” Lozano, 39, said Wednesday, estimating that at least 50 officers had surrounded the home two doors down from his.
“It was a really fast job they did,” he added. “They got [Oropeza] without people getting hurt or another shooting.”
Several others have also been arrested, authorities said, although they only shared details about one: Domingo Castilla. A friend of Oropeza, Castilla was arrested Tuesday in the Trail’s End neighborhood, where the victims were shot, Dillon said. Castilla has been charged with marijuana possession, and authorities also expect to charge him with obstructing Oropeza’s apprehension, Dillon said.
At a news conference Wednesday, San Jacinto County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Kean said he couldn’t go into details about the other people who were arrested or how many there were.
Oropeza was charged Wednesday with five counts of first-degree murder during a hearing in jail, said Judge Randy Ellisor, county justice of the peace. Oropeza’s bond was set at $1.5 million per count, for a total of $7.5 million; and bond for Castilla was set at $5,000, Ellisor said. Oropeza is a Mexican national who was deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to U.S. immigration officials.
Before Oropeza’s arrest, police spotted him Monday afternoon in Montgomery County, prompting several schools to lock down, Kean said at a news conference Wednesday outside the county jail.
Recent mass shootings have spurred new calls for gun regulations. Experts say the opposite is happening.
“We did confirm that was him on foot, running, but we lost track of him,” the sheriff said.
Kean declined to comment on the tip that led authorities to the Conroe home, which he said had not yet been checked by authorities.
Oropeza’s arrest came after authorities set up a widening dragnet with more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions, along with drones and search dogs, and offered $80,000 in reward money. The tip that finally ended the chase came at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. A little more than an hour later, Oropeza was in custody, said Jimmy Paul, FBI assistant special agent in charge.
Lozano said he didn’t know the residents of the home where Oropeza was arrested, but would sometimes say hi to them when they walked by his house.
“We never thought he was going to be right next door,” he said.
The victims of Friday’s shooting have been identified as Diana Velásquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, all from Honduras. Velásquez Alvarado’s father, Osmán Velásquez, said she had recently obtained legal residency in the U.S.
Argentina Guzman’s husband, Wilson Garcia, survived the shooting. He said friends and family in the home had tried to hide and shield the children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing Garcia’s wife first at the front door.
When offering a reward for Oropeza’s capture, Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called the victims “illegal immigrants,” which drew widespread backlash. His office apologized on Monday.
A government official in Honduras said the remains of four of the victims would be repatriated. Velásquez Alvarado will be buried in the United States at the request of her sister and husband, said Wilson Paz, general director of Honduras’ migrant protection service.
Osmán Velásquez said his daughter had traveled to the United States eight years ago with the help of a sister who was already living there.
“Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities, and that’s true,” he said. “But I never imagined it was just for this.”
Associated Press reporters Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, and Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, contributed to this report.
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