COLDSPRING, Texas (AP) — Sheriff Greg Capers was the classic picture of a Texas lawman as he announced the capture of a suspected mass killer: white cowboy hat on his head, gold star pinned to his chest, white cross on his belt and a large pistol emblazoned with his name on his hip.
For four days, Francisco Oropeza had evaded hundreds of officers after allegedly killing five neighbors when they complained that his late-night shooting was keeping their baby awake. The sheriff said his deputies arrived in 11 minutes, but Oropeza was gone. With the search over, Capers had a message for the victims’ families.
“They can rest easy now,” Capers told a row of television cameras in May. The burly sheriff later personally hauled the “coward” across a town square into court.
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FILE – San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers answers a question after a news conference, Sunday, April 30, 2023, in Cleveland, Texas. Capers’ turn in the national spotlight after an April mass shooting belied years of complaints about corruption and dysfunction that were previously unknown outside the piney woods of San Jacinto County. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers answers a question after a news conference, Sunday, April 30, 2023, in Cleveland, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
But an Associated Press investigation led the sheriff’s office to disclose that deputies took nearly four times as long as Capers initially said to arrive at the mass shooting.
The AP also found Capers’ turn in the national spotlight belied years of complaints about corruption and dysfunction that were previously unknown outside the piney woods of San Jacinto County.
Capers did not directly respond to requests for comment.
What has played out under his watch is indicative of challenges police face across rural America, where small staffs must patrol vast jurisdictions. It also reveals the difficulty in holding powerful law enforcement officials accountable in isolated areas with little outside oversight.
