By Juan A. Lozano -
The Associated Press
Wilson Garcia hadn't even asked his neighbor to stop firing his rifle.
In his rural community north of Houston, Texas, people are used to neighbors firing their guns for entertainment, but on Friday night Garcia's 1-month-old son was crying.
Garcia and two other people who were with him went to his neighbor's house to "respectfully" ask him to shoot further.
[Police have “zero leads” and offer $80,000 for data on man who killed 5 Latinos]
"He told us that he was on his property and that he could do whatever he wanted," Garcia said this Sunday after a vigil in Cleveland (Texas) for his 9-year-old son who was shot to death along with four other people in an attack that took place. attributed to that neighbor.
The suspect, Francisco Oropeza, 38, is still on the run despite 200 agents from various law enforcement agencies chasing him;
They have offered $80,000 for leads because they say they don't have any.
Garcia called the police after Oropeza ignored him.
The subject kept shooting and the shots were getting louder.
Garcia could see later that the man was on the porch of his house, but he couldn't make out what he was doing.
Wilson Garcia David J. Phillip / AP
His family continued to call the police.
They made five calls in total, according to Garcia.
Five times the 911 dispatcher assured them that help was on the way.
About 10 to 20 minutes after Garcia returned from Oropeza's home, the man started running toward him and reloaded his gun.
“I told my wife, 'Get in.
This man is loading his weapon, ”García said.
“My wife told me that I better go in, because she's not going to shoot me, I'm a woman,” he added.
[Killer 'Could Be Anywhere,' Police Say]
Near the house, the man began to shoot at those who were inside.
Garcia's wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, was standing outside the front door and was the first to die.
There were 15 people in total in the house, several of them friends of his wife who had accompanied her to a church retreat.
The attacker appeared to have intended to kill all of them, Garcia said.
Garcia's son, Daniel Enrique Laso, and two women who were protecting Garcia's baby and 2-year-old daughter were also killed.
One of them told him to jump out of a window "because my children were already without their mother, so one of the two had to be left to take care of them," García explained.
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“I'm trying to be strong for my children,” Garcia said, crying.
“My daughter understands something.
It is very difficult when she starts asking about her mother and her brother, ”she laments.
Police went door to door on Sunday hoping to find clues that would lead them to the suspect.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $50,000 reward, and local officials and the FBI raised it to $80,000 for any information on Oropeza.
"I can tell you at this point we have no leads," said James Smith, the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation.
Police recovered the AR-15 type rifle that Oropeza allegedly used in the attack.
Authorities weren't sure if he was carrying another weapon after they found several more at his home,
but said he should be considered armed and dangerous.
It is believed that he fled from there on foot.
During the first hours of the search in a heavily wooded area, investigators found clothing and a cell phone, but the dogs lost track of him, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said.
[Survivors of the shooting that left five dead in Texas recount the horror of what they experienced]
The authorities identified Oropeza through an identity card issued by the Mexican authorities to citizens residing outside the country, as well as images from a camera installed in the doorbell of the house.
The police have also interviewed his wife several times.
They hope the reward money will motivate leads, and they plan to put up billboards in Spanish.
Garcia, his slain wife and son, and the other three victims (Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and José Jonathan Casarez, 18) were all from Honduras.
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When asked why it took so long for the police to arrive, Capers replied that he only had three officers to patrol an area of 700 square miles (1,800 square kilometers).
By Sunday, police tape from the crime scene had been removed from around Garcia's home, where some people stopped to drop off flowers.
In the neighborhood, an FBI agent, Texas Department of Public Safety police officers and other officers were seen going door to door.
Verónica Pineda, 34, who lives across the street from the suspect's home, said authorities asked her if they could search her property to see if he might be hiding there.
She said that she was scared because the killer was still on the loose.
“It's a bit scary,” he said, “you never know where it might be.”
Pineda said he did not know Oropeza well but would occasionally see him, his wife and their son riding horses down the street.
He said that the family had lived there for five or six years and that the neighbors had already called the authorities on other occasions to complain that they liked to shoot weapons.
Garcia didn't know Oropeza well either, although their wives sometimes talked.
Once, he said, the man helped him cut down a tree.
