Sonia Guzman GoFundMe raises more than $13,000 as police identify victims in Texas mass shooting

Sonia Guzman and her son Diana Velazquez Alvarado (Image via GoFundMe)
Sonia Guzman and her son Diana Velazquez Alvarado (Image via GoFundMe)

On April 2, a drunk man in southeast Texas, identified as 39-year-old Francisco Oropeza, shot and killed five neighbors after one of them asked him to stop firing the weapon, as it would wake the baby sleeping inside their house.

The victims, who all hail from Honduras, have been identified as 25-year-old Sonia Guzman, her 8-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso, 21-year-old Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 31-year-old Julisa Molina Rivera, and 18-year-old Josué Jonatán Cáceres.

In the wake of the horrific killing, Sonia Guzman's husband, Wilson, started a fundraiser to help him send the bodies of his wife and child to their native country Honduras for burial. The fundraiser launched on April 30 has so far raised more than $13,000 of its $25,000 goal.


A manhunt is still underway for Texas mass shooting suspect Francisco Oropeza

Police are still searching for the suspect Francisco Oropeza, a Hispanic man who fled the scene after he shot his neighbors following a minor dispute. As previously reported on Friday night, Oropeza was shooting an AR-15-style assault weapon on his front porch for sport when a neighbor asked him to stop firing the gun as it would wake the baby inside their house.

In response, a belligerent Oropeza, who was reportedly drunk at the time, told the neighbor that it was his property before walking to the neighbor's front door and shooting five people inside the house, including an 8-year-old boy. The suspect then fled the scene.

Sheriff Greg Capers told Eyewitness News that ten people were residing in the house at the time of the shooting. Capers said that police were initially responding to a harassment report at a home when they were alerted of an active shooter at the scene.

Upon arrival, police officers reportedly found five individuals from Honduras shot in the head at the Texas residence. Authorities added that three other people ,who were found covered in the victims' blood, were also taken to a hospital. However, it is unclear if they were injured.

On Saturday, Capers said authorities had pinned Francisco Oropeza’s location to a wooded area 1.2 miles west of the crime scene, but as of late Sunday, the suspect was still considered to be a fugitive on the lam.


Texas Governor Greg Abbott criticized for statement on victims of the mass shooting

The office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott offered a $50K reward for information that leads to Oropesa’s whereabouts, noting that the suspect could be anywhere at this time. They said:

"Governor Greg Abbott today announced a $50,000 reward for a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) top 10 fugitive who is in the country illegally and killed five illegal immigrants in a shooting Friday night in Cleveland, Texas."

However, Abbott is now receiving backlash for identifying the victims of the Texas mass shooting as "illegal immigrants." George Takei, the Star Trek actor who is the son of immigrant parents, called the governor's statement “despicable". In a Twitter post, he said:

"This is despicable. I would have thought bringing up the immigration status of the innocent victims of this senseless violence would be beneath even you. But I was wrong.”

Julián Castro, the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary, also criticized the governor for describing the victims of a senseless tragedy as illegal immigrants. He said:

"Five human beings lost their lives and Greg Abbott insists on labeling them 'illegal immigrants'."

Meanwhile, CNN reported that more than 200 officers from multiple law enforcement agencies are searching for the suspect in the shooting.

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