Considered armed and dangerous
Francisco Oropeza is a suspect in a mass shooting Friday in a rural Texas neighborhood. He is the next-door neighbor of his shooting victims. Oropeza shot four members of a family execution-style in their home. A fifth person, an 8-year-old child, was flown to a hospital and later died. As I write this on Sunday morning, the manhunt is still underway.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said they were able to identify Oropeza through his Mexican consulate card and a doorbell camera. What isn’t being said in reporting is whether or not Oropeza is in this country legally. The consulate card indicates to me that he is still a Mexican citizen. Is there an elephant in the room here? The press has a bad habit of not giving the most basic of facts when it comes to legal and illegal immigration.
The mass shooting happened in the small community of Cleveland, Texas, about 50 miles north of Houston. The reporting goes that Oropeza was intoxicated and shooting a gun in his backyard on Friday night. His neighbor, Wilson Garcia, asked him to stop making the noise because his baby was trying to go to sleep. In the area where many immigrants have settled, it is common for its residents to unwind by firing off guns in their yards.
Rene Arevalo Sr., who lives a few houses down, said he heard gunshots around midnight but didn’t think anything of it.
“It’s a normal thing people do around here, especially on Fridays after work,” Arevalo said. “They get home and start drinking in their backyards and shooting out there.”
Arevalo said he warned his wife about staying away from their neighbors.
A few months ago, Arevalo said Oropeza threatened to kill his dog after it got loose in the neighborhood and chased the pit bull in his truck.
“I tell my wife all the time, ‘Stay away from the neighbors. Don’t argue with them.
