A man in Texas who went next door with a rifle and opened fire on his neighbors killed an 8-year-old boy and four other people, apparently all Hondurans, authorities said Saturday. The family had asked him to stop shooting in their yard because the noise was keeping them awake.
San Jacinto Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities were searching for the 39-year-old suspect after the massacre occurred overnight in Cleveland, a town 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Houston. He indicated that the suspect, whom he did not identify, used an AR-15 rifle in the slaying.
“Everyone was shot from the neck up, almost as if they were executed,” Capers told a news conference from the site.
The officer added that there were 10 people in the house and no one else was injured. Two of the victims were lying on top of two children inside the home.
“The Honduran ladies lying on top of these children were looking to protect them,” Capers said.
Reaction in Honduras
Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina called Saturday for “the full weight of the law” to be applied after the killing of five Honduran citizens, including an eight-year-old boy, in Texas, United States.
“We demand that the full weight of the law be applied against the person or persons responsible for this crime,” Reina said in offering his condolences to the families of the victims in a tweet reproduced by Honduran media, and noted that the Consulate was instructed to “contact the authorities and closely follow up on the case.”
Before the killing, family members had walked to the fence separating the two homes to ask the suspect to stop firing rounds, Capers added. He responded that he was on his property, and a person in the house filmed him approaching the gate with the rifle, he added.
Three of the victims are women. Their names were not released. They were between the ages of 8 and 40, Capers said.
Authorities had previously gone to the suspect’s home, the sheriff said. “Agents had gone to talk to him about that shooting his gun in the yard,” he noted.
Capers noted that some in the house had moved from Houston days earlier, but he did not know if they planned to settle there.