New shooting leaves five dead, including an 8-year-old, in Texas

2023-04-30 10:12:41

Published in: 30/04/2023 – 10:12

Five people, including an eight-year-old child, all from Honduras, were killed near Houston, Texas, announced local authorities, who are actively searching for the suspect. According to the first elements provided by the sheriff, the man was practicing shooting in his garden when neighbors asked him to stop the noise at night so that a baby could sleep, which would have led him to point the gun at them.

Called at first for “harassment” and later for shooting, during the early hours of Friday (28) to Saturday (29), San Jacinto county officials, in the southeast of this US state, found four dead bodies when they arrived at the house. Four people were taken to hospital, including an 8-year-old child, who also died.

Of the ten Hondurans who were in the house, two children were found alive, hidden under the bodies of two women in a bedroom. All of the victims were shot “like an execution, mostly in the head,” Sheriff Greg Capers told the local news channel. ABCo KTRK. As for the two women killed, “in my opinion, they were really trying to protect the babies,” he added.

The suspect, who is on the run, is “a Mexican”, identified as Francisco Oropeza, said the sheriff at a press conference broadcast by the local channel. KHO 11. He “was drinking and said, ‘I do what I want in my garden,'” according to the officer.

“We demand that the law be enforced”

The suspect is being sought, is the subject of an arrest warrant and has been indicted for murder. “We have your file from the Mexican consulate,” continued the sheriff to the KTRKadding that a security system at the victims’ home “filmed him approaching the front door with a gun.”

This new murder caused great commotion in Honduras, a small country in Central America. “We demand that the law be applied with all its rigor to the person or persons responsible,” Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina posted on Twitter, offering his condolences to the families of the victims.

1/2 Our condolences to the families of the victims of this terrible crime in San Jacinto, Texas. In which 5 people supposedly of Honduran nationality have died. Our consulate has been instructed to contact the authorities and closely monitor the case. https://t.co/pFZ5z8zYp8

— Enrique Reina (@EnriqueReinaHN) April 29, 2023

series of attacks

This new attack is part of a tragic series of similar events in the United States, where firearms are wreaking increasing havoc. Earlier this month, a black teenager was shot and seriously injured after knocking on the wrong door of a Missouri home.

In upstate New York, a 20-year-old woman was shot and killed after mistakenly driving into a driveway.

And, also in Texas, a man opened fire on team leaders after one of them tried to open his car door, which she mistook for her own vehicle.

The United States has a ratio of more individual guns than people, causing more than 130 deaths a day, more than half of which are suicides.

(With information from AFP)