FBI erroneously identifies Fort Worth man as suspect in Houston-area quintuple homicide

Aol.
EMERSON CLARRIDGE
Updated May 1, 2023 at 3:19 PM

The FBI on Sunday distributed a photograph of a man who lives in Fort Worth whose name is the same but for one letter as the fugitive suspect in the killings of five people near Houston.

The agency later said the image did not show Francisco Oropesa, the suspect in the Friday shooting deaths of his neighbors, and that it had released the photo in error.

The FBI then publicly issued photos of the suspect, whose last name is spelled with an S, rather than the Z used by the Fort Worth resident. The first photo the FBI released was not of the suspect, according to Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the agency’s Houston field office, The Houston Chronicle reported.

Oropesa used a rifle to shoot to death his neighbors, killing an 8-year-old and four others, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said.

A search continued on Monday for 39-year-old Oropesa in connection with killings in Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston.

REWARD: There is a combined reward of up to $80,000 ($25,000 from the FBI) for information leading to the arrest of Francisco Oropesa.

If you have information about Oropesa or the #ClevelandTXshooting, submit tips via https://t.co/G7iWD3Yw4f or 1-800-CALL-FBI (press option 1). pic.twitter.com/TYac8vYapb

— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) May 1, 2023

The erroneously identified man’s sister-in-law told KDFW-TV that Oropeza called the FBI to alert the agency of the error.

“What if somebody sees the tweet and sees a Facebook share and sees the picture, and then they see him?” she said.

At a press conference, James Smith, the special agent in charge of the FBI Houston field office, discussed the error.

“We went back, looked at what we had, and now we are 100% confident we have the right photo out there, but it was, it was a mistake. We will own up on it,” Smith said.

Here are the newest images of Francisco Oropesa and a prominent tattoo on his left forearm.

Going forward, the subject's last name will be spelled "Oropesa" to better reflect his identity in law enforcement systems. This remains a fluid investigation. #ClevelandTXShooting pic.twitter.com/ZWUu0FqoMF

— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) April 30, 2023

At a vigil in Cleveland, Wilson Garcia, whose wife and son were killed in the attack, described the efforts inside his home by friends and family to escape, hide and shield themselves and children after Oropesa walked to the house and began to fire.

Garcia said that he and two other people had gone to his neighbor’s house to “respectfully” ask that he shoot farther away from their home because Garcia’s 1-month-old son was crying.

Authorities have offered $80,000 in reward money for information about the suspect’s whereabouts, most of it coming from Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor drew backlash on social media for referring to the victims as five “illegal immigrants” in a statement announcing the reward money. Law enforcement on the scene had not confirmed the citizenship status of the victims.

In a followup statement Monday, the governor’s office said, “We’ve since learned that at least one of the victims may have been in the United States legally. We regret if the information was incorrect and detracted from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal.”

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center criticized Abbott on Twitter for “using social media to amplify language painting a specific narrative intended to alter the way you view + treat the people around you.”

Garcia, his slain son and wife, Daniel Enrique Laso and 25-year-old Sonia Argentina Guzman, and the other three victims — Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18 — are from Honduras.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.