Manhunt for gunman who shot dead five neighbours in Texas enters its fourth day

Published

2 years ago

May 2, 2023

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The search for a suspected gunman has entered its fourth day after five neighbours were shot dead in Texas – as a grieving father has recalled the moment his wife and young son were killed.

Francisco Oropesa, who is considered to be armed and dangerous, is believed to have fled the rural town of Cleveland on foot after the shooting on Friday night.

Neighbours have said the Mexican national had lived on the street where the shooting took place for years.

The attacks took place after the 38-year-old’s neighbours asked him to stop firing off rounds in his garden late at night because a baby was trying to sleep.

The gunman’s victims were all from Honduras and have been identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

More than 250 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, including the US Marshals, are now part of a growing search.

Oropesa has not been found despite scent-tracking dogs, drones and a total of $80,000 (£64,000) in reward money on offer.

An FBI agent on the scene near Houston has acknowledged the bureau has little to go on in the widening manhunt.

On Monday, a heavy police presence converged in Montgomery County after a possible sighting, but the sheriff’s office later said none of the people located were Oropesa.

A few hours later, the department reported another possible sighting, tweeting that several schools had “secured their campuses” and again asked residents to avoid the area.

But that search, too, turned up nothing.

Both were among the first times since the shooting on Friday night that authorities had announced a possible sighting.

Wilson Garcia, the father of the one-month-old who had been crying before the shooting, has described the terrifying moments his wife Sonia Argentina Guzman and nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso were gunned down.

He said he and the three other men went to Oropesa’s home and “respectfully” asked him to curtail or move his target practice.

“He answered by saying he was in his property and could do whatever he wants,” Mr Garcia said.

“Then he began insulting us… My wife said, ‘OK, let’s call the cops.’ Police took, like, 20 minutes to arrive, and we called five times because the man was very threatening,” he added.

It wasn’t clear whether all five of the 911 calls came before, during or after the shooting.

After refusing to stop firing, Mr Garcia said he could see Oropesa on his porch “smoking and drinking something” before “we saw him as he went inside his home to load the gun”.

Mr Garcia said he urged his wife to take cover inside as the gunman approached their house but she stood her ground.

He said: “He just walked in shooting. He didn’t say anything. He shot her, and the door was wide open. He walks in, room by room, shooting at us.”

Daniel ran to his fatally-wounded mother but was also gunned down, Mr Garcia said.

Police have recovered an AR-15-style rifle that they said Oropesa used in the shootings.

Authorities were not sure if he was carrying another weapon after others were found in his home.

Meanwhile, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has faced a backlash over drawing attention to the victims’ immigration status.

Mr Abbott offered a $50,000 (£40,000) reward over the weekend for any tips that might lead to the gunman being caught.

While doing so, he described all the victims as “illegal immigrants” – a potentially false statement that his office has now apologised for.

US

LA riots: Trump dials up the rhetoric

Published

1 hour ago

June 10, 2025

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Protests have entered their fourth day in Los Angeles. As people continue to clash with police, Trump has deployed the National Guard against the wishes of the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom.

Martha Kelner has been reporting from the streets of LA, seeing burning cars, tear gas, and people being hit with rubber bullets. Martha, Mark Stone, and James Matthews discuss the scenes in LA, and Trump’s reaction.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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Downtown LA is a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness

Published

1 day ago

June 9, 2025

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Downtown LA is a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness

A shirtless man waving a Mexican flag stands atop a burning car in the heart of Los Angeles, as another man throws a traffic cone into the flames and some play drums and shout chants in opposition to immigration officials.

In the background, city hall can be glimpsed through a haze of thick black smoke.

The downtown district of one of America’s biggest cities was a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness as protests, which had previously been mainly peaceful, turned ugly.

Critics of Donald Trump said the president’s extraordinary decision to deploy National Guard troops, defying the wishes of the state’s governor, had inflamed tensions and stoked emotions.

The 101 Freeway, the main highway cutting through the downtown area, was also closed down for much of the day as police and protesters faced off, with flash bang devices sending some people scattering.

Bottles and other projectiles were hurled towards police, who responded by using tear gas and rubber bullets.

It was this chaos, his critics say, that Donald Trump wanted to provoke.

Trump’s decision to call in 2,000 National Guard troops, several hundred of whom were on the streets of LA on Sunday, was taken without consultation with the California governor and LA mayor, and marked an extraordinary escalation by the president.

The military arrived on Sunday morning and was ordered to guard federal buildings, after two days of protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

As part of Trump’s closed border policy, ICE has been ordered to find, detain and deport as many illegal immigrants as possible, and it was these raids that stoked the first signs of protest on Friday into the weekend.

By midday Sunday, the military was surrounded by protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown LA. It was here that many immigrants had been held before being shipped off to detention facilities.

The walls and floors are covered in expletive-ridden graffiti, reading f*** ICE.

The Los Angeles police soon split the crowd and drove a wedge between the National Guard and the crowd.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has called Donald Trump’s acts those of a “dictator, not a president”.

He’s formally requested that the Trump administration withdraw the National Guard. The White House say the military will remain there until order is restored. Five hundred marines are still on standby.

Los Angeles Police Department police chief Jim McDonnell, asked whether the National Guard was needed, said: “This thing has gotten out of control.”

He said that although the LAPD would not initially have requested assistance from the National Guard, the disorder had caused him to reevaluate his assessment.

Several people were arrested.

Sky News witnessed a young woman, who called herself Gabriella, riding her motorbike at speed towards a line of police officers.

One of the police officers used his arm to push her off the bike. She said she was protesting because her “people were being rounded up.”

Politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned the violence, but some vehemently disagreed about what actions led to the escalation.

US

National Guard to be deployed to LA immigration ‘riots’ – as Trump claims state officials ‘can’t do their jobs’

Published

2 days ago

June 8, 2025

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National Guard to be deployed to LA immigration 'riots' - as Trump claims state officials 'can't do their jobs'

The National Guard will be deployed to Los Angeles after “riots” in response to immigration raids extended into a second day.

California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed that the Trump administration is deploying “2,000 soldiers” to Los Angeles after local police used tear gas, stun guns, and riot shields to push back immigration protesters on Saturday.

Demonstrations began outside the Los Angeles Federal Building in the downtown area of LA on Friday after officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out raids in the area.

On Saturday, several dozen protesters were involved in police standoffs in Paramount, a city south of LA.

Mr Newsom warned in a post on X: “The federal government is sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate. That is not the way any civilized country behaves.”

He described the deployment as “purposefully inflammatory” and claimed it will “only escalate tensions”.

President Donald Trump hit back at Mr Newsom in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday.

“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!,” he wrote.

Mr Trump’s defence secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that active duty marines would also be mobilised if “violence continues”.

LA mayor Karen Bass said that amid the recovery from this year’s wildfires, “many in our community are feeling fear” following “recent federal immigration enforcement actions” across LA County.

“We’ve been in direct contact with officials in Washington, D.C., and are working closely with law enforcement to find the best path forward,” she said.

“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable.”

Reports the guard would be deployed to LA came earlier on Saturday, from Mr Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan on Fox News.

44 arrested in Friday raids

At least 44 people were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations during raids on Friday, with crowds of around “1,000 rioters” forming around the building before some “assaulted law enforcement officers, slashed tires, and defaced taxpayer-funded property”, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The raids saw street vendors and day workers rounded up across Home Depots, a clothing factory, and a warehouse, Salas of Chirla (The Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles) said.

In a statement on Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “violent mobs” had “attacked ICE officers and federal law enforcement agents carrying out basic deportation operations”.

She described such activity as “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States”.

Ms Leavitt said Californian politicians were “feckless” and had “completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens”, prompting Mr Trump’s order to send in the guard.

Protests spread to second city

On Saturday, protests spread to the Paramount area, where there is a significant Latino population, after demonstrators spotted ICE employees in a Home Depot car park they appeared to be using as a base.

Law enforcement officers faced off protesters at a road junction at around 5pm where a car had been set on fire earlier in the day.

The roads were pictured strewn with trolleys and rubbish bins set on fire, as gas canisters and fireworks were also set off.

Commenting on Saturday’s protests, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said: “It appeared that federal law enforcement officers were in the area, and that members of the public were gathering to protest.”

Vice President JD Vance claimed that “insurrectionists” were seen “carrying foreign flags” and “attacking immigration enforcement officers” in Paramount.

“One half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,” he posted on X. “Time to pass President Trump’s beautiful bill and further secure the border.”

The clashes come amid Trump’s nationwide crackdown on illegal migration.

As soon as he was re-elected in January he set a target of arresting 3,000 suspected illegal migrants per day – and promised to lock down the US-Mexico border.