Try our mobile app
April 29 (Reuters) - A gunman shot dead five neighbors including an 8-year old child after some of them had asked the man to stop shooting a semiautomatic rifle in his front yard in Cleveland, Texas, because it was keeping their baby awake, police said on Saturday.
Police were still looking for the suspect, who used an AR-15-style rifle in the shooting late on Friday, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said by telephone.
Authorities have charged Francisco Oropeza, 38, with five counts of murder and were searching for him in a nearby wooded area, Capers said.
"We are tracking him with dogs and men on horseback and drones in the air," said Capers. He was quoted as saying by other outlets that all the victims were shot in the head "almost execution-style."
Officials from Capers' office received a call from Cleveland about harassment at around 11:31 p.m. local time but when they reached the scene they found several victims who had been shot, he said.
There were a total of 10 people in the house when the gunman got in and started shooting, said Capers, five of whom survived.
Police said the victims were all from Honduras but officials did not disclose their names, ABC news reported earlier.
Enrique Reina, the foreign minister of Honduras, said the Honduran consulate was in contact with the authorities in Texas.
"We demand that the full weight of the law be applied against the person responsible for this crime," he wrote on Twitter.
The suspect stepped out of his house on Friday night and started shooting off rounds in his yard which is when some of the victims stepped out to confront him, Capers said.
"The man walked over to the fence, said 'Hey, we're trying to keep the baby asleep in here,'" Capers said.
Both parties then went back to their houses, said Caper, where the shooter "topped off his magazine, and walked down his driveway" onto the street then "into the people's house and started shooting."
