Texas man accused of killing five of his neighbors reportedly arrested

Officials say they have arrested the Texas man accused of killing five of his neighbors in the rural town of Cleveland last week.

The San Jacinto county district attorney, Todd Dillon, told NBC News that a person officials say is Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested in Cut and Shoot, Texas, on Tuesday. Rand Henderson, the Montgomery county sheriff, also confirmed that Oropeza was arrested without incident.

The sheriff would not say whether Oropeza was armed or how authorities figured out where he was.

Oropeza is accused of killing five people, including a nine-year-old boy and two women shielding children, after neighbors asked him to move farther away if he was going to fire an AR-15-style rifle in his yard.

Oropeza then allegedly approached his neighbor’s home and carried out America’s 17th mass killing so far this year.

The report of Oropeza’s arrest came as the FBI said it was working with law enforcement agencies nationwide and in Mexico in an expanded manhunt for the killer sought since Friday night’s violence in Cleveland, Texas, north of Houston.

This most recent mass shooting came after other high-profile homicides in southern states including the killing of three students and three staff members at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, a workplace shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky that left five dead, and the killings of four young people in Dadeville, Alabama.

The number of casualties during “active shooter” events reached a five-year high in 2022 with 100 people killed and 213 injured, according to a recently released FBI report.

The man arrested Tuesday has been taken to the local jail and faces charges of first-degree murder, Dillon said. Authorities are awaiting his fingerprints to confirm his identity, according to NBC News.