Texas family called police 5 times before shooting spree that killed 5

[Jilly_in_VA]

A resident of the Texas home where a man opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle says his family called police five times over a span of more than 10 minutes before the rampage began that left five people dead and fueled an intensive manhunt for the killer.

Wilson Garcia says he asked his neighbor, who was shooting a gun in his yard late Friday night, to shoot farther away from Garcia's home because Garcia's 1-month old son was sleeping. Garcia said he called police when the man refused. The family made four more calls in almost 20 minutes before the shooter ran toward Garcia's house, according to the Associated Press.

“I told my wife, ‘Get inside. This man has loaded his weapon,” Garcia said. “My wife told me to go inside because ‘he won’t fire at me, I’m a woman.’”

Garcia’s wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, was the first person shot. Garcia's 9-year-old son also was killed. Garcia said more than a dozen people were in his home at the time, and that two women died protecting his infant and 2-year-old daughter, neither of whom was injured.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers explained the delayed police response in the town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston, saying he had only three officers covering 700 square miles.

The suspect, Francisco Oropeza, 38, remained at large Monday despite a search involving hundreds of law enforcement personnel from multiple jurisdictions.

Authorities said Oropeza is from Mexico and the victims from Honduras. Gov. Greg Abbott said all were in the country illegally.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/05/01/5-dead-in-texas-shooting-family-called-police-5-times-before-killings/70168758007/

They're all HIspanic, and if that's not the kicker, the last sentence is, I'm betting.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The innocent victims have left their blood on Abbott's filthy hands, without a doubt.

An active shooter should be a priority, no matter where the victims came from.

[world wide wally]

18. I always think of that Bible verse, "Thou shalt not kill legal residents"

[Bettie]

22. Isn't it funny (odd, not ha ha) that these supposed "Christians"

ignore the part about welcoming the stranger and treating them as one of your own?

[Jilly_in_VA]

29. That's Old Testament

They pick and choose what they want out of those books. The parts about gay people, yeah. The parts about linen and wool, or eating pork and shrimp, or welcoming the stranger? Not so much.

[Bettie]

35. Yeah, my grandma

called them "Cafeteria Christians" take what you want, ignore what you don't like, but tell everyone who will listen about your "Biblical Life". She was not a fan of this behavior.

My great-grandma was a little more salty about the people who said and did one thing on Sunday and something else every day of the week!

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

39. All followers of the Abrahamic religions

Pick and choose from the book. There are no exceptions, because only a schizophrenic could reconcile all of the contradictions in it.

Furthermore, the book isn't always kind to strangers. Says to enslave them when they're sojourning in your country, and you get to own them and all of their descendants into perpetuity. Or how about the part where it's okay to kidnap a bunch of strangers of the female persuasion and rape them to force them into marriage? Or if you defeat an enemy (a stranger, if you will), and take all of their women and children as your property?

As it is, Paul the Self-Loathing may have tried to poof the old book's laws he didn't like out of existence, but the supposed protagonist in those first four books explicitly said those same laws would be in effect until the end of the world. So who do you listen to? A known lunatic with a propensity for having hallucinations, or the supposed demi-god?

But never mind me. I actually read the book, unlike all but a handful of the jeebus fans.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

38. It also says to enslave the strangers "sojourning" in your country

Leviticus 25.

That's why christians need to be careful about using that book as a basis for morality. It always--always--has a passage that makes a lie of whatever you're touting.

[Jilly_in_VA]

42. NOT to

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

30. He doesn't care. He's called them all "Illegal immigrants"

despite at least one of them having legal residence in the country.

[Bettie]

36. The baby was a month old

very likely born her, thus a citizen as well.

[Tickle]

41. I think he was an "illegal immigrant" himself

I thought I read that he had been thrown out of the USA a few times in the past few years.

I suspect his gun was illegal to but that I don't know

[inthewind21]

2. Only

3 officers covering 700 miles? Sounds about right for Texas!

[forthemiddle]

20. That happens all over rural America

I lived in a rural area in Wisconsin that covered 765 square miles. It was not uncommon for there only to be 2 Sheriff officers patrolling at a time.
If they happened to be in the other side of the County it could be hours before they got to you.

This is why rural voters tend to be more conservative, and why they prefer a more hands off government. They are much more self reliant, because they have to be.

[SWBTATTReg]

24. Absolutely right. In our county in MO (a rural county, in between Springfield MO and the Lake

Of the Ozarks), we were located in an out of the way rural road that was off the beaten path from the county police in case we had to call them (over 30 miles away, over a two-lane highway).

If something happened, well, you know the story. My folks were lucky that the State Park located next to them (over a mile or so away), did offer in case something happened, that they would help them, but still...

I can understand the need to arm oneself to protect yourselves. We always had a pistol with us when we visited our place next to my folks there (and of course they had guns (my dad, an avid collector, who served in the Korean conflict).

[Kaleva]

23. That's pretty much the norm for rural areas

[Aristus]

3. Yeah, gun massacres are much better when they're perpetrated by American citizens.

[grumpyduck]

4. That's a disgrace.

Looking thru the Cleveland TX PD website, methinks something stinks to high heaven.

https://www.clevelandtexas.com/199/Police

And fuck you, Abbott. they were human beings in YOUR state. Prick.

[CatWoman]

7. Also, they were not all "illegals"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217872791

[Eyeball_Kid]

5. Oropeza became his own vigilante force.

He summarily executed people whom he thought were violating his rights. That's Texas.

And if Texans don't like being characterized as assault rifle fanboys who murder at the drop of a hat. Then CHANGE YOUR CULTURE AND YOUR GOVERNOR, Texans. Otherwise, you deserve the "unfair" labels. I'll never set foot inside any Texas border for as long as fascism and violence are a feature, not a bug, in Texas.

[Takket]

6. If someone is shooting off a weapon...

Leave the area IMMEDIATELY if you can do so safely (I.e. you don’t think he’ll turn his gun on your car), otherwise barricade yourself indoors and then call the police.

But DO NOT approach them or assume for even a second that these gun humpers won’t murder someone that so much as asks them to “please not fire a gun near my house” no matter how innocuous that may seem.

Get someplace safe, then call the police.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Abbott lied. The family is here leally. Great that the cops released a photo of the wrong guy.

" James Smith, FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge said the agency initially released the wrong suspect's photo but that "now we are 100% confident that we have the right photo out there."

[yardwork]

10. Seems like the local LE aren't trying very hard to catch him.

[CatWoman]

13. I think he's already back in Mexico

[Ilsa]

9. "...only three officers covering 700 square miles." Has TX defunded the

police? It's a poor area, if I'm not mistaken (maybe it's changed?), but so much gets pushed down to the local level.

If I was a dispatcher, I might have prioritized the calls involving a gun, but maybe the three cops were already preventing shootings somewhere else nearby. (When it rains, it pours.)

[moondust]

12. More cops would require more taxes.

To pay for salaries and training. Perhaps Harlan Crow and his Texas billionaire pals have convinced Greg that their tax burden is just too much to bear. More profitable to just let everybody buy their own guns and do the "policing" themselves! Besides, those "illegals" ain't billionaires so...let 'em eat bullets.

[Ilsa]

14. When I lived in TX, tax revenue was pushed down to the county level. nt

[pinkstarburst]

25. Here in Austin

there are severe issues with police staffing and EMS staffing at the moment. People who call 911 are finding they are on hold for 5 minutes and sometimes even LONGER before someone even picks up the call. Imagine your child is choking. Imagine someone is breaking into your house with a gun. You call 911. No one picks up your call for 5 minutes. Or longer.

Here it's the fault of the city council, who after the BLM protests, decided to cancel some of the police cadet classes, even though there were already police shortages. Then officers quit due to attitudes towards police, pay problems (the COL in Austin is awful) and now it's just a mess. I am absolutely sure if you live in a rural area like that one, it's even worse.

As for 911 dispatchers, this is also the fault of our city council and city manager (who was just fired). There are huge numbers of vacancies for 911 dispatchers because it's a highly stressful position and with terrible pay. They are not doing anything to make the pay competitive so that people will actually want to work that job and that is on the city council/manager.

[dalton99a]

27. +1. And now Austin is patrolled by state troopers

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/investigations/defenders/dps-troopers-austin-more-misdemeanor-arrests-people-of-color/269-57c46a9c-8d7c-41ae-8b58-070d8557afaa
DPS troopers in Austin are arresting people of color for misdemeanors at a disproportionate rate, data shows
KVUE analyzed the number of misdemeanor arrests made by DPS troopers patrolling in Austin, going back to the start of DPS' partnership with the APD.

[gratuitous]

37. But your taxes are real low!

It happens all over the country, but the taxophobia is overwhelming. People holler about underfunded and understaffed agencies, but any proposals that raise more money to address the problem (adequate funding and staffing cost first and foremost money: taxes) are immediately assailed as higher taxes, and are doomed to failure from the get-go. Even funding proposals targeting revenue from people making six figures or more annually are decried, and some of the loudest voices are those of people not subject to being taxed more.

So now, cowering in the shadows or locked in the bathroom while a murderer stalks through your house with his military grade semi-automatic rifle and you're waiting for a 911 operator to come on the line, you think, maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to pay an extra $2.83 a month to fund the 911 system and hire some more law enforcement personnel.

[niyad]

11. The last sentence is not true, according to an earlier post on DU this

morning.

[CurtEastPoint]

15. WHAT last sentence? This? Gov. Greg Abbott said all were in the country illegally.

[niyad]

16. Yes. The husband of one posted her legal ID.

[anciano]

17. With the current gun culture being what it is ....

the number of incidents like this is truly alarming, not only in Texas, but nationwide. It's another reason the 2024 elections are so critical. GOTV!!!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. Police don't keep people safe.

[BlackSkimmer]

33. I'm especially unimpressed by the Texas cops.

They let that bicycle killer woman escape and go on the lam to Costa Rica.

Then Uvalde. Then this.

[Emile]

21. Never fear, Governor Greg Abbott is on it.

[FSogol]

28. Abbott is one of the biggest assholes in this nation.

[Jilly_in_VA]

43. Assholes serve a useful purpose

I'm not sure Greg boy does.....

[SonofDonald]

31. So they were supposedly here illegally

THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS AND TRYING FOR FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM

AND THEY WERE MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD

so what makes it ok ?

NOTHING WHATSOEVER

JUST CHANGE THE NARRATIVE AND ADD FIVE MORE HUMAN BEINGS TO THE TOLL

I’m leaving this world soon and I almost feel glad that I don’t have to hear this shit anymore, it’s just too damn much to continue to to think about, it’s not about my mental state but the world my extended family is going to be left behind to have to deal with

And all of you out there still having to deal with leaders who don’t give a flying fuck about anything but themselves and the almighty dollar

I apologise for my words folks but this is beyond horrid to me

I’m pretty much lying in my death bed but I’m worried about everyone else, If that makes me a liberal Democrat then I’m in the place

With the right People 🤗

[obamanut2012]

34. They were here legally -- Abbott was (shocker) wrong

[uponit7771]

40. Wow, MAGA tries to be more ghoulish and succeeds

[BlackSkimmer]

32. This makes me very sad.

I hope they catch this monster.