Vigil held for youngest victim of Texas shooting: ‘We’re alive but at the same time we’re not’

‘He came every day with smiles and brought so much joy to the teachers, staff and everyone here’

A vigil was held in the memory of a nine-year-old who lost his life along with four others after a man opened fire at the boy’s home in Cleveland, Texas.

The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa, is accused of shooting his next-door neighbours when they complained about him firing rounds in his yard, leading to the deaths of nine-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso, his mother Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31 and Josué Jonatán Cáceres, 18.

The vigil was held at Northside Elementary School, where the youngest victim was a third-grade student.

“He came every day with smiles and brought so much joy to the teachers, staff and everyone here,” Cleveland independent school district (ISD) superintendent Stephen McCanless was quoted as saying by local outlet Bluebonnet News.

His father, Wilson Garcia Ramirez, and two surviving siblings also attended the vigil. “I don’t have words to describe what happened,” Mr Garcia said in Spanish, reported the Houston Chronicle newspaper. “It’s like we’re alive but at the same time we’re not. What happened truly was horrible.”

Mr Garcia, who described the unfolding of the incident, said he did not ask his neighbour to stop shooting his gun, but “respectfully” requested him to shoot farther away.

“He told us he was on his property, and he could do what he wanted,” Mr Garcia said Sunday.

Mr Garcia called the police after Mr Oropesa rejected his request.

His family continued to call the police – five calls in all. He said. “Five times the dispatcher assured me that help was coming.”

And then, 10-20 minutes after Mr Garcia had walked back from Mr Oropesa’s house, the man started running toward him and reloading.

Mass shooting survivor Wilson Garcia looks up to the sky during a vigil for his son Daniel Enrique Laso, 8, Sunday, 30 April 2023, in Cleveland, Texas (AP)

“I told my wife, ‘Get inside. This man has loaded his weapon’,” Mr Garcia said. “My wife told me to go inside because ‘he won’t fire at me, I’m a woman’.”

The gunman walked up to the home and began firing. Mr Garcia’s wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, was at the front door, and the first to die.

The house held 15 people in all, several of them friends who had been there to join Mr Garcia’s wife on a church retreat. The gunman seemed intent on killing everyone, Mr Garcia said.

Also among the dead were two women who died shielding Mr Garcia’s baby and two-year-old daughter. He said one of the women had told him to jump out a window “because my children were without a mother and one of their parents had to stay alive to take care of them”.

“I am trying to be strong for my children," Mr Garcia said, crying. “My daughter sort of understands. It [will be] very difficult when she begins to ask for mama and for her [older] brother.”

Police went door to door on Sunday in hopes of finding any clues that would lead them to the suspect. Governor Greg Abbott has put up $50,000 in reward money and local officials and the FBI also chipped in, bringing the total to $80,000 for any information on Mr Oropesa’s whereabouts.

Reverand Carl Williamson, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church who was also in attendance at the vigil, called on the community to support each other as he spoke about the shooting.

“A lot of us are here today asking a question: why? This doesn’t make sense. Why would something like this happen around us? I want to tell you this: Everything happens for a reason. The Bible says all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

“Here is one thing I see happening. On days like this, there is no black, or brown, or white. There are hurting people. We want to come together and lean on each other,” he was quoted as saying by Bluebonnet News. “That’s what we are going to do today. We are going to pray and ask god to watch over this family.”

Meanwhile, Cleveland ISD has announced crisis counselors will be available at the start of school on Monday.