A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbours ended today not far from the site of the shooting when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.
Francisco Oropeza, 38, was arrested four days after the shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 72km north of Houston, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.
He said Oropeza was arrested without incident near Conroe, which is roughly 32km from the home authorities say Oropeza fled after shooting his neighbours and setting off a widening manhunt that had grown to more than 250 people from multiple jurisdictions.
The sheriff would not say whether Oropeza was armed or how authorities figured out where he was.
Police had used drones and scent-tracking dogs during the wide search for Oropeza that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Republican Governor Greg Abbott offered US$50,000 ($80,000) in reward money as the search dragged late into the weekend and the FBI acknowledged that they had little indication as to Oropeza’s whereabouts.