A man shot five neighbours, including an eight-year-old boy, after some of them asked him to stop shooting with a semi-automatic rifle in his front yard in Cleveland, Texas because their child was being kept awake, the police say, reports RTE.
Police are still searching for the suspect who used an AR-15-style rifle in Friday’s shooting at a neighbour’s home, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said.
FBI agents assisted the Sheriff’s Office as they continued to search for the suspect, 38-year-old Francisco Oropeza, in a nearby wooded area 18 hours after the attack, Sheriff Capers said.
“We are tracking him with dogs and men on horseback and drones in the air,” Sheriff Capers said, reports RTE.
Police found an abandoned mobile phone and some discarded clothes in the search area, he said.
It was quoted by other news outlets as saying that all the victims were shot in the head “almost execution-style”, reports RTE.
Police said the five victims were from Honduras.
Enrique Reina, Honduran foreign minister, said the Honduran consulate is in contact with authorities in Texas.
“We demand that the full weight of the law be applied against the person responsible for this crime,” he wrote on Twitter, reports RTE.
The suspect got out of his home Friday night and started firing shots in his yard, prompting some of the victims to confront him, Sheriff Capers said.
“The man walked over to the fence, said ‘Hey, we’re trying to keep the baby asleep in here,'” Sheriff Capers said, reports RTE.
Both parties then went back to their homes.
Mr. Oropeza “topped off his magazine, and walked down his driveway” on the street, then “into the people’s house and started shooting,” Sheriff Capers said, reports RTE.
Police had been called to Mr. Oropeza’s home on several previous occasions because of complaints about noise he made firing his gun in his yard, Sheriff Capers said.
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