FBI erroneously identifies Fort Worth man as suspect in Houston-area quintuple homicide

The FBI on Sunday distributed a photograph of a man who lives in Fort Worth whose name is the same but for one letter as the fugitive suspect in the killings of five people near Houston.

The agency later said the image did not show Francisco Oropesa, the suspect in the Friday shooting deaths of his neighbors, and that it had released the photo in error.

The FBI then publicly issued photos of the suspect, whose last name is spelled with an S, rather than the Z used by the Fort Worth resident. The first photo the FBI released was not of the suspect, according to Connor Hagan, a spokesman for the agency’s Houston field office, The Houston Chronicle reported.

Oropesa used a rifle to shoot to death his neighbors, killing an 8-year-old and four others, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said.

A search continued on Monday for 39-year-old Oropesa in connection with killings in Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston.

The erroneously identified man’s sister-in-law told KDFW-TV that Oropeza called the FBI to alert the agency of the error.

“What if somebody sees the tweet and sees a Facebook share and sees the picture, and then they see him?” she said.

James Smith, the special agent in charge of the FBI Houston field office, discussed the error at a press conference.

“We went back, looked at what we had, and now we are 100% confident we have the right photo out there, but it was, it was a mistake. We will own up on it,” Smith said.