Texas shooting suspect armed and dangerous, police say

The hunt for a man who shot and fatally wounded five neighbours in Texas continued on Sunday, with officers knocking on doors and a $50,000 reward promised by the governor of the US state.

The FBI said they continued to look for the man after nearly two days of searching, with a team that has grown to hundreds of people.

“I can tell you right now, we have zero leads,” said FBI special agent James Smith.

The shooting took place in the rural town of Cleveland, about 75km north-east of Houston, around midnight on Friday.

Police were looking for a man named Francisco Oropeza, 38, with a search near Houston growing to involve more than 200 police officers from several jurisdictions by Sunday evening.

Local officials and the FBI also chipped in reward money, bringing the total to $80,000 for any information about Mr Oropeza's whereabouts.

He is considered armed and dangerous after fleeing the area on Friday night, most likely on foot, officials said.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities had widened the search area beyond the scene of the shooting, which he said occurred after a neighbour asked Mr Oropeza to stop firing off rounds in his garden late at night because a baby was trying to sleep.

At a Sunday vigil in Cleveland, Wilson Garcia, the father of the one-month-old, described the moment that the shooter walked up and began firing, killing Mr Garcia's wife at the front door of their home.

Mr Garcia's nine-year-old son Daniel Enrique Laso was also killed.

Mr Garcia said he and two other people had gone to “respectfully” ask Mr Oropeza to shoot his gun farther away from the house, which is on a street where residents say it is not uncommon for neighbours to fire off guns.

Mr Garcia said he walked away and called the police when Mr Oropeza refused.

'He won't fire at … a woman'

It was 10 to 20 minutes later when he said he saw a man loading his AR-style rifle while running towards the house.

“I told my wife ‘Get inside. This man has loaded his weapon’,” Mr Garcia said. “My wife told me to go inside because ‘He won’t fire at me. I’m a woman’.”

Authorities have said at least five other people who were in the house at the time were not injured.

During the early hours of the search, investigators found clothes and a phone while combing an area that includes dense layers of forest, but tracking dogs lost the scent, Mr Capers said.

Authorities said they identified Mr Oropeza as a suspect by an identity card issued by Mexican authorities to citizens who reside outside the country, as well as the doorbell camera footage. He said police had also interviewed Mr Oropeza's wife many times.

Police recovered the AR-15-style rifle they said was used in the shootings.

Authorities were not sure if Mr Oropeza was now carrying a weapon after others were found in his home.

Mr Capers said he hoped the reward money would motivate people to provide information and that there were plans to put up billboards in Spanish to spread the word.

“We’re looking for closure for this family,” Mr Capers said.

By Sunday, police crime scene tape was removed from around the victims' home, where some people stopped by to leave flowers.

Veronica Pineda, 34, who lives across the road from Mr Oropeza's home, said authorities asked if they could search her property to see if he might be hiding there. She said she was fearful that the gunman had not yet been captured.

“It is kind of scary,” she said. “You never know where he can be.”