SAN JACINTO COUNTY, Texas — People in the San Jacinto County neighborhood where five people were shot have a message for accused killer Francisco Oropeza: They've got guns and they're not afraid to use them.
“You’re a coward, shoot yourself," neighbor Dale Tiller told us Tuesday. "You kill babies and women – that’s the worst you can do. We don’t want you here, Mexico doesn’t want you either."
Some residents are afraid Oropeza, a Mexican national who's been deported four times, according to CBS News, is still in the area, others think he's long gone.
"The community's definitely on high alert," Tiller said Tuesday. "We're on edge, nervous, scared. We want the coward caught."
Neighbors warn Oropeza might face vigilante justice if he turns up in Cleveland and law enforcement doesn’t get him first.
“I wouldn’t hesitate. If I have to protect myself and protect my kids, I will use it," one woman who has a gun told us.
She was afraid to show her face out of fear of retaliation. The woman claims Oropeza once shot her dog, but it survived.
“He shot him twice on his leg," she said.
Neighbors said they heard a bunch of gunshots the night a 9-year-old boy, three women and an 18-year-old man were shot and killed. They didn't think much of it because Oropeza was known to randomly fire weapons in his yard.
That's what he was doing when the victims asked him to stop so their baby could sleep, according to San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers. He said Oropeza was angry so he barged into their home and gunned down the victims.
"I tell my wife all the time, 'Stay away from the neighbors. Don't argue with them. You never know how they're going to react,'" Rene Arevalo Sr. told CBS News. "I tell her that because Texas is a state where you don't know who has a gun and who is going to react that way."
A memorial in front of the modest home continues to grow as a way to honor the victims.
“I put myself in their shoes. I couldn’t imagine one of my family members going through that," one woman told us.
The victims of Texas mass shooting
Officials identified the victims Saturday afternoon as the woman who lived in the house, her son and three friends.
- Daniel Enrique Lazo, 9
- Sonia Guzmán, 28
- Diana Velásquez, 21
- Obdulia Molina, 31
- Jonathan Cáceres, 18
Editor's note: There have been discrepancies in the spelling and ages of the victims. We are using names and ages supplied to us by the Honduran government on Monday, May 1. Previous reporting used spelling and ages supplied earlier in the investigation by the Houston office of the FBI.
A friend told us Guzmán came here from Honduras and worked hard to help support her family. The young mother was eventually able to bring more family members to the States, including her son, Juanis Lopez told us.
She met Guzmán four years ago in cosmetology school and they graduated together.
Lopez said Guzmán was ambitious and determined to succeed.
Her son Daniel was a third-grader at Northside Elementary. A vigil was held on campus Sunday night before classes resumed on Monday.
Daniel's father, Wilson Garcia, said Velásquez and Molina died trying to protect his other two children from the gunfire. He's trying to be strong for them.
"My daughter kind of understands things. It's hard when she comes to me and starts asking for her mom and her brother," Garcia told us.
He was in the house at the time of the shootings but was able to get out when a woman warned him and told him to save himself because his wife was already dead.
"She told me to throw myself out of the window because my children were already without a mother," Garcia said.
Family members said Molina worked in a restaurant and Cáceres worked in construction.
All of the victims were from Honduras.