SAN JACINTO COUNTY, Texas — The San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office defended its response time to the mass shooting near Cleveland, Texas where five people were allegedly killed by Francisco Oropeza.
Authorities said they responded to the deadly shooting within 10 to 15 minutes, which they claimed was "excellent" for that area.
"You know what kind of roads those are," Chief Deputy Tim Kean said Wednesday morning. "To go from here (Coldspring) to there...lights and sirens, we're talking at least 30 minutes. This is not a rich county. We've got three deputies on patrol to cover this entire county."
Kean claimed that the county is understaffed and that there was also another incident at the time that was a higher priority.
"There was another patrol unit was on an aggravated robbery call...they had to leave the aggravated robbery call, which is a serious call," Kean said. "Two bad things going on at once with one deputy to do it all."
According to Kean, the aggravated robbery call trumped the deadly scene on Walter Drive, which initially was reported as a guy shooting a gun in the neighborhood. Kean said calls about someone just shooting a gun is something that happens "every single day."
When the call escalated into an "attack," that's when deputies moved toward the deadly shooting near Cleveland. Kean said it took about 14 minutes for authorities to arrive.
"We do what we can with what we have," Kean said. "Every single night they're out there doing that. By the time we get there, they know how long it takes, the guns are put up. Everybody's in the house. We see no violation."
Oropeza was officially charged with five counts of murder on Wednesday. His bond has been set at $7.5 million. His wife, Divimara Lamar Nava, was arrested because she was helping her husband hide out after their five neighbors were killed, authorities said.
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