5 people, including 8-year-old child, killed in shooting at Texas home

A Texas man went next door with a rifle and began shooting his neighbours, killing an 8-year-old and four others inside the house, after the family asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because they were trying to sleep, authorities said on Saturday.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities were still searching for the 39-year-old suspect following the overnight shooting in the town of Cleveland, about 72 kilometres north of Houston. He said the suspect, whom he did not identify, used an AR-style rifle in the shooting.

Capers said there were 10 people in the house and that no one else was injured. He said two of the victims, all believed to be from Honduras, were found laying over two children inside.

"The Honduran ladies that were laying over these children were doing it in such an effort as to protect the child,” Capers said.

The confrontation followed family members walking up to the fence and asking the suspect to stop shooting rounds, Capers said.

The suspect responded by telling them that it was his property, according to Capers, and that one person in the house got a video of the suspect walking up to the front door with the rifle.

Three of the victims were women and one was a man. Their names were not released. Capers said the victims were between the ages of 8 and about 40 years old.

Authorities have previously been to the suspect's home, according to Capers. "Deputies have come over and spoke with him about him shooting his gun in the yard,” he said.

Capers said some of those in the house had just moved from Houston earlier in the week, but he did not know whether they were planning to stay there.

"In my opinion, they were actually trying to take care of the babies and keep them babies alive," Capers told ABC's Houston station KTRK.
All the victims had been shot "from the neck up almost execution style, basically in the head," he added.

"He had been drinking and he says, 'I'll do what I want to in my front yard,'" Capers told KTRK. The sheriff's office said later on its Facebook page that the shooter was believed to have left the county.

Residents were being asked to stay inside until the man is apprehended, KTRK reported.

The US is setting a record pace for mass killings.

Agencies