Texas man allegedly murders next door neighbors after being asked to stop shooting gun at 11pm

Five out of ten family members were reportedly murdered at home by their 38 year old neighbor after they asked him to stop shooting rounds into his yard as they had young children trying to sleep.

The suspect is currently at large, and his whereabouts are currently unknown.

Ten family members were in the home at the time their neighbor entered their home. The intitial interaction where one family member asked for him to stop shooting his rifle happened around 11pm. Shortly after, he was seen walking up their driveway with his rifle, heading towards the front door.

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San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers speaks to the media outside of a crime scene where five people, including an 8-year-old child, were killed after a shooting inside a home on April 29 in Cleveland, Texas. (Go Nakamura/Getty Images)

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According to WAPO, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told press that authorities have been called to the alleged shooters home prior to this killing for “similar behavior.” He continued by saying they were called to his home in the past for firing weapons.

Originally from Honduras, the family had moved to Cleveland from Harris County, which is roughly 40 miles northeast of downtown Houston. The neighborhood they moved into was characterized by Capers as a, “regular country neighborhood.”

Vianey Balderas, their neighbor who lives across the street, told The Post:

...she first heard gunshots that night when a few people were outside. About 20 minutes later, Balderas heard about five more gunshots, then another 10, she told The Post.

“When I heard those gunshots, I didn’t think anything of it because in this neighborhood everyone has guns. Every weekend you hear gunshots,” she said in an interview in Spanish.

“People shoot in their backyards, after they drink alcohol, men take out guns at house parties and shoot the ground.”

Minutes later, Balderas, 27, heard a truck pulling away. She then saw one of her neighbors — the father of the children, she said — outside, begging for someone to call an ambulance. She said the family and Oropeza had quarreled before.

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This tragedy has unsurprisingly drawn the ire activists and politicians who support the ban of “assault weapons,” more specifically the AR-15 as it is considered by many, including WAPO, to be “lethal and destructive.” As far as I am concerned, ALL firearms are to be considered LETHAL and DESTRUCTIVE. Regardless, the movement to phase out AR-15’s from society is supported by the corporate press to the extent WAPO spent “7 months examining the AR-15’s role in American.”

They begin the article with:

The AR-15 is more than a weapon.

It is a potent symbol with a grip on the American imagination — a readily available and easy-to-use killing machine wielded during some of the country’s darkest moments, and a tactical weapon championed as the ultimate expression of Second Amendment rights. It is also a lucrative consumer product with a distinct appeal: The more controversial it becomes, the better it sells.

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While I generally disagree with the assertion that the AR-15 is anymore or less dangerous than a comparable weapon, and I disdain the unwavering attempts to BAN it in the US, I will commend WAPO for their dedication to conducting a thorough investigation into the firearm’s history. Whether it would appear as deadly as they elude to when compared to other similar weapons or not, here are claims they made in this report:

The Washington Post interviewed more than 200 people with expertise or relevant firsthand experience — including firearms industry executives and lobbyists, gun owners, shooting survivors and victims’ families, lawmakers, trauma surgeons, first responders, activists, armed militants, academics and ballistics experts, among others. Our seven-month examination also relied on a review of more than 1,000 pages of documents, including internal company records, court and regulatory filings, and autopsy reports, many of them obtained through public records requests. And, in the most detailed poll of its kind to date, The Post partnered with Ipsos to survey hundreds of AR-15 owners about their reasons for having the weapon.

The report goes on to cite a list of key findings, supported by the research they conducted during the investigation. If you would like to dive into how they conducted their research, and what the results were, you can find all relevant citations in the report here.