More details are emerging about the lives of the five victims killed last week in a mass shooting in Cleveland, Texas.
The suspect in the massacre, Francisco Oropesa, was apprehended in Conroe, Texas, Tuesday evening after a four-day manhunt. The FBI said he was found hiding in a laundry closet.
Neighbors had allegedly asked Oropesa to stop firing his rifle in his yard late Friday so that a baby could sleep. The 38-year-old suspect, who authorities identified from video at the scene and by a Mexican consulate card, then allegedly entered the neighboring home and opened fire on five of the 10 people inside, killing the victims execution-style.
The victims have since been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her 9-year-old son, Daniel Enrique Laso; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.
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Sonia Argentina Guzman and Daniel Enrique Laso, two of the victims in the shooting on April 28 in Cleveland, Texas. ( )
Sonia Argentina Guzman
Guzman, the mother of youngest victim Daniel Enrique Laso, had brought her child to the U.S. when he was 3 years old “for a better future,” her brother Ramiro Guzman has said.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Ramiro Guzman said Sonia settled in Cleveland because the greenery there reminded her of her hometown of La Misión in Honduras.
Ramiro said Guzman, who sent remittances to her mother for years, achieved her goal of providing a home for her mother and her younger siblings who still live in the Central American country.
“Everyone comes here with a plan, with a goal,” Ramiro also told NBC News, noting that his mother hasn’t seen Sonia for a decade. “Now my mom is going to see my sister, but in the worst way. She’s going to see my nephew in the worst way.”
Daniel Enrique Laso
Laso used to ride bicycles to a school bus stop with the child of the suspect, Ramiro Guzman told NBC News this week.
“My nephew, he always would take his bicycle to where the school bus would stop,” Ramiro Ramiro said. “Sometimes they went together, my nephew and his child.”
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“They always went on their bicycles together. They were like friends,” he added. “And he killed him.”
The Cleveland Independent School District held a community prayer vigil for Daniel two days after he was killed.
It said it was “heartbroken learning the news concerning the death of one of our students.”
Diana Velazquez Alvarado died while protecting children from gunfire on Friday, April 28 in Cleveland, Texas. ( )
Diana Velazquez Alvarado
Alvarado died Friday while shielding multiple children who survived the attack.
She came to the U.S. from Honduras with aspirations of becoming a cosmetologist, her boyfriend and relative of Sonia Argentina Guzman, Jeffri Rivera, told the Houston Chronicle.
Alvarado had children ages 2 and 4.
“She just wanted our kids to thrive,” Rivera said.
Julisa Molina Rivera, left, and Jose Jonathan Casarez were a couple, a report said. ( )
Julisa Molina Rivera
Julisa Rivera also died while protecting young children during the shooting.
Jeffri Rivera told the Houston Chronicle that Julisa arrived in the U.S. from Honduras in 2022 and “she worked hard and took care of her kids.”
Jose Jonathan Casarez
Casarez, a nephew of Jeffri and the boyfriend of Julisa Molina Rivera, reportedly worked in construction and remodeled homes.
His dream was to give his North Carolina-based mother and his father, who is still in Honduras, a comfortable life, according to the Houston Chronicle.
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“He was really joyful, always smiling,” Jeffri said to the newspaper, adding that Casarez cared for Julisa’s 6-year-old and 9-month-old children as if they were his own.
Ramiro Guzman also told the newspaper that Casarez enjoyed going to the movies and fishing.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contribtued to this report.
