The suspect wanted for the massacre of four adults and one child in Cleveland, Texas, had previously been arrested and deported at least four times, according to a source in Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The suspect was identified by ICE as Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres. He was first removed by an immigration judge in March 2009, the ICE source told CNN on Monday.
“At an unknown time and location, Perez-Torres unlawfully reentered the United States, and was apprehended and removed several more times by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in September 2009, January 2012, and July 2016,” the source said.
Oropesa Perez-Torres was asked to stop firing his rifle by his next-door neighbors several times. Despite at least 5 calls to 911, the situation escalated until Oropesa Perez-Torres opened fire.
Wilson Garcia and two other men walked over to Oropesa’s house and asked him to stop shooting because their baby was asleep.
The gunman later came to Garcia’s home, shooting his wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, in the doorway before killing three other adults and Garcia’s son, Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, the grieving father said.
“One of the people who died saw when my wife fell to the ground,” Garcia told CNN.
“She told me to throw myself out the window because my children were already without a mother. So one of us had to stay alive to take care of them. She was the person who helped me jump out the window.”
The woman who helped Garcia flee did not survive, he said.
“Two people who died were protecting my 2 1/2-year-old daughter and my 1-month-old son,” Garcia said, sobbing. “They protected him with a bunch of clothing so the murderer wouldn’t kill him, too. So just imagine what we’re feeling now. It was horrible.”
Oropesa Perez-Torres is considered armed and extremely dangerous. An $80,000 reward has been offered for information leading to his arrest.
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According to NBCNews, Oropesa Perez-Torres slipped past a two-mile dragnet of more than 150 law enforcement officers in Cleveland, Texas, about 45 miles north of Houston, on Saturday.
On Saturday, searchers found the suspect’s cellphone and some of his clothing before scent-tracking dogs lost his trail, authorities said.
Capers, the sheriff, said authorities seized the rifle used in the attack, but the suspect might still be armed with a handgun.
Court records for a drunken-driving conviction in 2012, stemming from a Texas Highway Patrol arrest in 2009, match the suspect’s name and birthdate and suggest he may have been familiar with the area for more than a decade.
“I don’t care if he was here legally. I don’t care if he was here illegally,” said San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers. “He was in my county. Five people died in my county, and that is where my heart is — in my county protecting our people to the best of our ability.”
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