AUSTIN - A failure of border policy is to blame for an April 2023 mass shooting in a Southeast Texas city, lawyers hoping to force the federal government to pay up say.
Jamal Alsaffar and Tom Jacob of National Trial Law filed an administrative claim against the federal government on behalf of the family of Sonia Argentina Guzman Taibot and her son Daniel Guzman, two of five people killed when Francisco Oropeza allegedly invaded their home with an AR-15.
The murders happened in Cleveland, Texas, and could have been prevented, the claim says. Oropeza was a known criminal who had been caught illegally entering American from Mexico four times.
Each illegal entry should have been entered into the FBI NICS background check system. But he was still allowed to purchase the firearm, even though the Gun Control Act prevents any person illegally in the country from buying one.
"Because of the Government's negligence, the shooter did not appear in the FBI's national database when he was encountered by law enforcement for a variety of gun-related and other criminal activity, and when he purchased the firearms used in the mass shooting..." the claim says.
"As a direct and proximate cause of the Government's negligence, the shooter was able to use the firearms to kill Sonia Argentina Guzman Taibot..."
Oropeza pleaded not guilty to killing five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy. Officials said the family had asked him to stop firing a gun in his yard because it was disturbing a sleeping baby.
In retaliation, it is alleged he killed five members of the family. He has been charged with capital murder of multiple persons, and the criminal case, which could result in a sentence of death, remains pending.
Oropeza had illegally entered the country and was deported four times between 2009-16.
"Because the federal government never submitted his illegal entries into the FBI NICS system - a mandatory duty to report - law enforcement was unaware each time they encountered him that the shooter was illegally in possession of firearms and ammunition," the claim says.
"What's more, several of those law enforcement encounters with the shooter involved complaints related to the shooter's use of firearms. So, had the federal government reported him into the FBI NICS system, at any of the four points he was detained for illegal entry or at any time up and until the shooting in 2023, the shooter would've been subjected to automatic arrest, felony conviction, imprisonment, and deportation.
"And, more likely than not, the shooting would never have occurred..."
The claim lists a history of negligence by the Department of Homeland Services to operate mandatory reporting requirements under the Gun Control Act.