The usual suspects – the media, gun control activists, and Democrats – are being oddly subdued over a mass shooting in Texas on Friday night. Five people, including a nine-year-old boy, are dead in a horrific murder spree, but all the favorite narratives have fallen apart.

However, this mass shooting cannot be ignored, because the suspect is still at large – and authorities have no idea where to find him.

“I can tell you right now, we have zero leads,” James Smith, the FBI special agent in charge, told reporters while again asking the public for tips in the rural town of Cleveland, where the shooting took place just before midnight Friday.”

The search for the gunman near Houston has grown in scale: Authorities said that by Sunday evening more than 200 police from multiple jurisdictions were searching for Francisco Oropeza, many of them going door to door in hopes of any clues that would lead to the 38-year-old suspect. Local officials and the FBI also chipped in reward money, bringing the total to $80,000 for any information about Oropeza’s whereabouts.”

Oropeza is considered armed and dangerous after fleeing the area Friday night, likely on foot. San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities had widened the search area beyond the scene of the shooting, which occurred after the suspect’s neighbors asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard late at night because a baby was trying to sleep.”

The murder suspect then showed up at the neighbor’s house, allegedly killing anyone he found.

At a Sunday vigil in Cleveland, Wilson Garcia, the father of the 1-month-old, described the terrifying efforts inside his home by friends and family that night to escape, hide and shield themselves and children after Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.”

Another of Garcia’s children, 9-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso, was also killed. Garcia said he and two other people had gone to “respectfully” ask Oropeza to shoot his gun farther away from the house, which is on a street where residents say it is not uncommon for neighbors to unwind by firing off guns.”

Garcia said he walked away and called the police when Oropeza refused. It was 10 to 20 minutes later when he said he saw Oropeza loading his AR-style rifle while running toward the house.”

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

Authorities have said at least five other people who were in the house at the time were uninjured.”

During the early hours of the search, investigators found clothes and a phone while combing an area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent, Capers said.”

Authorities were able to identify Oropeza by an identity card issued by Mexican authorities to citizens who reside outside the country, as well as the doorbell camera footage. He said police have also interviewed the suspect’s wife multiple times.”

Police recovered the AR-15-style rifle that they said Oropeza used in the shootings. Authorities were not sure if Oropeza was carrying another weapon after others were found in his home.”

It is worth noting that the shooter’s last name is being spelled both “Oropeza” and “Oropesa.” Authorities are now settling on “Oropesa” after an innocent man with the same name was mistakenly identified as the shooter.

Here are the newest images of Francisco Oropesa and a prominent tattoo on his left forearm.

Going forward, the subject's last name will be spelled "Oropesa" to better reflect his identity in law enforcement systems. This remains a fluid investigation. #ClevelandTXShooting pic.twitter.com/ZWUu0FqoMF

— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) April 30, 2023

This mass shooting has all the things the national media and gun control activists just love to exploit. But they are mostly staying far away from it, only covering the manhunt, unless they can use the story to pick at Republicans. For example, Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez, who decided to use the gun control angle – and got pretty harshly corrected.

The murderer is an illegal alien from Mexico who was deported at least twice, according to Univision 45 Houston. When you’re a senator, who supports open border policies that likely led to this tragedy, maybe shut the hell up. https://t.co/CTZKGzd73D

— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) April 29, 2023

And it apparently wasn’t just twice that the shooter was deported. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, who is their point guy on border security, is reporting that a Department of Homeland Security source tells him that the alleged killer was deported FIVE times, with the last deportation being in 2016.

Five people are dead, including a child. An AR-15 was used to commit the crime. And yet the media is mostly covering it as a “local crime,” and only because the shooter is still on the loose. And it’s as plain as day why. Their narrative is not served in this case. An illegal alien, previously deported, is the accused murderer? That would require the media to actually look at border policy, and question why this killer was living openly in the United States, with his OWN wife, in the first place. An AR-15 was used to execute innocent people? Well, as an illegal alien with multiple deportations, it wasn’t legal for him to possess the firearm. Which means the AR-15 was likely not legally obtained, which means that more gun laws would not have made a bit of difference – especially in a neighborhood where people “unwind” by shooting off their guns. Until the media can find an angle as they did in Tennessee, which enabled them to ignore the inconvenience of a trans-identified shooter killing children and adults at a Christian school, they are going hands off on this story. The Daily Beast made a half-hearted attempt to complain about Texas Governor Greg Abbott identifying the victims as illegal immigrants, who were apparently all from Honduras. But unless the rest of the media takes up that weak refrain, it’s likely to dissipate quickly.

Odds that the shooter is moving toward the Mexican border in order to escape capture? Quite high, one would think. Cleveland, Texas, is north of Houston, and Google Maps claims that the most direct route to a crossing point (Laredo) would only take about 6 hours by vehicle. We do have an extradition treaty with Mexico, but do you think they will put someone accused of a mass killing in the United States high on their priority list? If they can even find him? The shooter apparently changed clothes and abandoned his phone, which would get him “off the grid.” Without the public providing tips, this case will grow cold quickly.

And with no narrative to use, the media and gun-control activists will be more than happy to let the case grow cold. After all, justice is not their goal. Using horrible crimes to push for their preferred outcomes is the goal.

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