(CNN) — [Breaking news update, published at 9:29 a.m. ET]
The woman who lived with and shares a child with the Texas massacre suspect has been booked into the Montgomery County jail, online sheriff’s records show.
Divimara Lamar Nava faces a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, a third-degree felony. She was arrested at the same place in Montgomery County that suspected gunman Francisco Oropesa was arrested Tuesday night, case records show.
[Original story, published at 8:36 a.m. ET]
“Several arrests” have been made in connection with the capture of the man suspected of fatally shooting five people last week in a Texas home, and “others are hinging on what’s going on right now,” a sheriff’s deputy said Wednesday.
In addition to accused gunman Francisco Oropesa, fewer than five others have been arrested, Chief Deputy Tim Kean of the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said. “But I can’t go into the details.”
Authorities also are waiting to learn whether the mass shooting weapon has been recovered. “As of now, we may have the weapon, but we have to wait for ballistics (testing),” Kean said at a news conference outside the jail where Oropesa is now being held after a dayslong manhunt.
A 38-year-old Mexican national, Oropesa was found Tuesday evening stowed under a pile of laundry in a closet just a few miles from the massacre site after a tip helped lead authorities to him, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said Tuesday. Law enforcement also tracked Oropesa’s wife to the home, which is associated with one of the suspect’s family members, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Oropesa will be held on five counts of murder, with bond set at $5 million, the sheriff’s office said.
The suspect is expected to appear in court Wednesday to be read the charges, a source with the San Jacinto County District Attorney’s Office told CNN, adding the charges could be upgraded to capital murder — a death penalty offense in Texas. Authorities are still investigating whether he had any help in evading arrest, the San Jacinto County district attorney told CNN.
“We are so happy,” Jefrinson Rivera, the partner of victim Diana Velázquez Alvarado, told CNN of the arrest in a community about a 20-minute drive west of where the shooting unfolded in Cleveland, northwest of Houston.
Evelyn Echeverria, 16, had been lying in bed around 6 p.m. when she heard helicopters flying above her home, she told CNN.
“I headed out and saw a lot of cops and maybe 20 minutes later they came out with him,” said Echeverria, who took a video of the apprehension. “He came out handcuffed. He looked like he was cooperating with the officers.”
Officers led Oropesa through the yard of a house, then gathered around him as he sat in a law enforcement vehicle, witness videos show.
Oropesa is accused of fatally shooting five people Friday after he was asked to stop firing his rifle outdoors near his neighbor’s home. Wilson Garcia, whose wife and son were killed, and two others had asked Oropesa to shoot on the other side of his property because the gunfire was waking Garcia’s baby, he told CNN. The suspect refused and soon unleashed gunfire into the home where Garcia’s family was gathered, he said.
The massacre is among more than 180 US mass shootings this year. The victims — all Honduran nationals — have been identified as Garcia’s wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and her son Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, 9; Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and José Jonathan Cásarez, 18.
Authorities now have 90 days to indict Oropesa, a law enforcement source involved said. Due to his status as a Mexican national, the Mexican consulate will be formally notified of his circumstances on Wednesday, the law enforcement source said.
At least four times since 2009, Oropesa had entered the US unlawfully and been deported, according to an ICE source. An immigration judge first removed him in March 2009 before he was deported again in September 2009, January 2012 and July 2016, the source said.
It’s unclear how long Oropesa had been in the US before last week’s attack.
How authorities tracked down the suspect
In the end, it was information submitted through the FBI’s tip line that pointed investigators to the home where Oropesa was discovered, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said Tuesday night.
Federal, state and local authorities had devoted considerable resources to hunting for the fugitive, including a collective $80,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and more than 200 law enforcement officers on the case, officials have said.
Officials’ efforts may have been stymied by a lack of trust in law enforcement. Some Latinos, particularly immigrants, fear contact with law enforcement could lead to questions about their immigration status and lead to deportation, they told CNN.
After initial leads on Oropesa went cold over the weekend, authorities pleaded for tips — which eventually came in from Texas, Wyoming, Florida, Maryland and Oklahoma, the sheriff said.
“We just want to thank the person who had the courage and bravery to call in the suspect’s location,” Paul said.
It’s not clear if law enforcement had tracked Oropesa’s wife to the home before or after the tip was sent to the FBI.
Once they had zeroed in on the house, members of the Texas Department of Public Safety, US Marshals Service and US Customs and Border Patrol’s tactical unit, known as BORTAC, entered the home and brought the suspect into custody, an FBI Houston spokesperson said. The sheriff’s office located the home in the small city of Cut and Shoot, while the FBI Houston office tweeted it is in adjacent Conroe.
The BORTAC unit has played a key role in several high-profile US operations, including the mass shooting last year at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where its members fatally shot that gunman, authorities said.
How the rampage unfolded
More than a dozen family members and friends were gathered Friday in the Cleveland home, said Garcia, whose wife and son were killed. They were helping his wife get ready for a church event, he said.
But their evening was disturbed by gunshots fired by Oropesa outside his home next door, the father said. The shots were waking up Garcia’s baby and making him cry.
About 10 to 20 minutes before the suspected gunman opened fire, Garcia and two others walked over to Oropesa to ask that he instead shoot on the other side of his property, he said.
The suspect refused, and Garcia said he would call police.
“We walked inside and my wife was talking to the police, and we called five times because he was being more threatening,” Garcia recalled.
At some point, they watched as Oropesa walked off his property and cocked his gun, Garcia said. Concerned, he told his wife to come inside the house.
“My wife said, ‘You go inside, I don’t think he will fire at me because I’m a woman, I’ll stay here at the door.'”
Soon after, the gunman charged into Garcia’s home, first shooting his wife, Argentina Guzman, in the doorway before killing three other adults and Garcia’s son Daniel, the grieving father said.
“One of the people who died saw when my wife fell to the ground,” Garcia told CNN. “She told me to throw myself out the window because my children were already without a mother. So one of us had to stay alive to take care of them. She was the person who helped me jump out the window.”
The victims were shot “almost execution style” at close range above the neck, Capers told local media.
Officers responded to the scene as fast as they could, the sheriff said. But his small force covers a large county, he said, and the home is about 15 minutes outside town.
(Copyright (c) 2025 CNN. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)