In the US state of Texas, a man shot dead five people with an assault rifle in his neighboring house, including an eight-year-old child. As the authorities announced on Saturday, the Honduran victims were killed at night in a house near Houston. The suspect, who is from Mexico, is on the run.
As reported by US media, the shooter did target practice with his assault rifle in his garden on Friday evening. When his neighbors asked him to stop because a baby couldn’t fall asleep, the man freaked out.
The neighbors called the police around 11:30 p.m. local time, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said. When the officers arrived, they saw a horrible picture: they found four dead and several seriously injured in the house. Four people were taken to the hospital, but an eight-year-old child died from his injuries. There were ten people in the house at the time of the crime.
According to the sheriff, the victims lay throughout the house, from the front door to a bedroom. Two small children, lying under two dead women, survived the carnage. Capers said on ABC local station KTRK the women saved their children by protecting the little ones with their own bodies. The attacker literally executed his victims, most of them with shots in the head. The man was drunk and is said to have said to his neighbors: “I can do whatever I want in my front yard.”
“All the victims came from Honduras,” Capers said at a press conference. The attacker, who came from Mexico, is being sought. An arrest warrant for five counts of murder had been issued against the 39-year-old suspect, the police said. Presumably he left the country. Nevertheless, all people living in the vicinity of the crime scene should stay at home as a precaution. The US Federal Police FBI also initiated a search and warned against approaching the man.
Honduras’ foreign minister, Enrique Reina, called for the perpetrator to be subjected to “the full force of the law.” His country is following the case with great concern, he said on Twitter.
Gun violence is a big problem in the US. The right to own a gun is enshrined in the US Constitution, according to the prevailing interpretation, and the country has more guns than residents: one in three adults owns at least one gun, and almost one in two adults lives in a household where a gun is available .
According to the Gun Violence Archive website, there have been more than 170 gun attacks this year, killing or injuring four or more people.
