Moment police caught gunman in closet 20 miles away from mass murder spot
This is the moment police caught the suspected gunman accused of shooting five family members dead at home in Texas.
Video of an arrest has emerged after a four-day manhunt ended when police caught Francisco Oropesa hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet at a house
In the footage a shirtless man can be seen handcuffed and sitting inside a pickup truck surrounded by a number of law enforcement officers.
The Mexican national is accused of shooting five members of the same extended family, his neighbours, dead on April 29 following a dispute about noise.
Oropesa was arrested at 6.30pm on Tuesday in Conroe in Montgomery County, Texas which borders San Jacinto County home to the city of Cleveland where the shooting took place.
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe
Francisco Oropesa (FBI/ZUMA Press Wire Service/REX/Shutterstock)He was found under a pile of clothes just 75 minutes after an FBI tip came in about his whereabouts.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers described Oropesa as a "coward" and said: "He is uninjured and he is currently being taken into my facility.
"He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five."
Oropesa is now being held on a $5million bond and is facing five counts of murder.
Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, wife of suspect Francisco Oropeza, was in custody in connection with the Friday night shooting, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.
Nava had previously denied knowledge of Oropeza's whereabouts, Henderson said, but authorities believe she hid him in the home near Conroe where he was arrested Tuesday.
Lamar Nava was arrested early Wednesday and was being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, according to online jail records. The records do not list a bond for her and indicate she was arrested by state police at a home in Conroe.
The Texas shooting victims. From top right, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, with son Daniel and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.The Bureau had previously appealed for information about Oropesa's whereabouts and said there were "zero leads".
Capers said that "somebody got a tip" that allowed law enforcement to close in.
He said: "It was a multi-jurisdictional operation, to say the least. DPS, CID, US Marshals, FBI. We had a tag team, and they all meandered over there and found out that that tip to be true."
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
A combined tip of $80,000 was on offer for information leading to Oropesa's arrest.
FBI Assistant Special Agent Jimmy Paul said: "We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspect’s location."
Spokesman Connor Hagan said they would not disclose the identity of the person who called in the tip - one of more than 200 tips he says investigators received.
Oropesa is a Mexican national who has been deported four times between 2009 and 2016, according to US immigration officials.
A major manhunt was sparked after the shooting (AP)Authorities did not say who owned the house, whether Oropesa knew them or if anyone else was inside when he was found.
They also would not say whether friends or family had helped Oropesa evade capture, or where he had been since fleeing the scene in Cleveland, which authorities previously said was likely on foot.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
