The previously deported Mexican national accused in the brutal murder of five Honduran migrants in Cleveland, Texas, is now in custody, according to San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers. A multi-agency task force took the fugitive into custody on Tuesday night near Cut & Shoot, Texas.
Sheriff Capers told Breitbart Texas that a team of U.S. Marshal Deputies, Texas Department of Public Safety CID agents, and Border Patrol’s elite BORTAC agents found Francisco Oropesa near Cut & Shoot early Tuesday evening. The arrest brought to an end, the four-day manhunt for the four-time deported Mexican national.
The search for the man accused of murdering four of his neighbors, all Honduran migrants, began on Saturday morning when San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived on the scene of the mass-casualty murder. Sheriff Capers told Breitbart in a phone interview Tuesday morning that his deputies arrived on the scene in less than 11 minutes.
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, 2023 in Cleveland, Texas. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)
Oropesa reportedly fled on foot after shooting and killing five Honduran neighbors late Friday night. Capers said search dogs tracked the man after finding a cell phone and some clothing but the dogs lost the track when the man entered the water. From that point, a massive manhunt began and the reward for his capture rose to $80,000.
The sheriff said they received leads from Maryland to Wyoming. However, a local tip brought the law enforcement team to Oropesa less than 20 miles from where the shooting took place.
While driving from Cut & Shoot to his jail with the suspect in his vehicle, Sheriff Capers said he wasn’t going to believe it was his suspect until he looked at the man’s tattoo and looked into his eyes.
Capers said he took off the arresting agent’s cuffs and “rolled up his sleeves and placed him in my cuffs.”
The case will now fall into the hands of San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon. Breitbart Texas reached out to the DA for information about how the State will proceed with charges. An immediate response was not available.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct a typo in the headline. The number of murders charged should have been five, not four. The information in the article was correct.