Five people have been shot and killed in a home in Cleveland, Texas. Police say they were killed by a neighbor after he complained that he had been shooting at close range in the yard.
Among the dead was an eight-year-old boy, and three women and a man were also killed. The alleged perpetrator has not yet been arrested. He is said to have been armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle or similar. Cleveland is located about 70 kilometers north of Houston.
The killings occurred late Friday night, local time.
The suspect is a 39-year-old man, according to San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers.
Protect children
Capers says there were about 10 people in the house where the murders took place. Five of them were killed, while five others were not injured. All dead must have a Honduran background. Two of them were found lying on two children inside the house.
– Capers says that Honduran women who lay on babies did so in an effort to protect them. He says all of the dead were shot in the neck or head.
According to the police, the crime took place after the family members climbed the fence towards the neighbor. They asked the neighbor to stop shooting, as it was past eleven in the evening and they had a baby who needed to sleep. He then claimed that he replied that it was his property.
“They come home and then we have a video that shows the perpetrator walking down a neighbor’s path with an AR-15,” says Sheriff Greg Capers. Washington Post.
The police came
Capers says police were previously at the suspect’s home.
– The police officers stopped him and talked to him about how he fired his gun in the garden, he said.
Some of those in the home where Five was killed are said to have moved there from Houston earlier in the week.
The United States is set to have a record number of mass shootings this year. Since the new year, there have been at least 18 shootings that have killed four or more people. Motives abound, from murder followed by suicide and violence in intimate relationships to gang settlements, school shootings and workplace conflicts.
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