A survivor of the Texas shooting that killed 5 people says his family called 911 5 times before the gunman opened fire

• Police were called five times before Friday's deadly mass shooting in Texas unfolded, a survivor said.
• By the time authorities arrived at the scene in the rural area of Cleveland, Texas, it was too late.

A man whose wife and child were slain in Friday night's Texas mass shooting said that his family called 911 five times in the minutes before their neighbor opened fire.

By the time authorities arrived at the scene in rural Cleveland, Texas, it was too late. Five people, including a 9-year-old boy, had been fatally shot "almost execution-style" in the rampage, police said.

"I never thought that he would shoot. Then he went room to room, looking for people," survivor Wilson Garcia told local news outlet KTRK-TV.

The horrific shooting unfolded after Garcia asked the suspected gunman — identified by authorities as 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa — to stop firing his AR-15-style rifle near Garcia's family home.

Garcia said that he and two others walked over to his neighbor's house on Friday night to "respectfully" ask that the man shoot his gun farther away from the home because his newborn baby was trying to sleep, according to the Associated Press.

"He told us he was on his property, and he could do what he wanted," Garcia told the AP on Sunday after a vigil.

Garcia said he then called the police as the man continued to shoot his gun.

In total, Garcia's family called the police five different times and each time the dispatcher insisted that help was on the way, according to the AP. The San Jacinto County Sheriff's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Monday.

About 10 to 20 minutes after Garcia walked back from his neighbor's house, the man ran toward him, reloading his gun, Garcia said.

"I told my wife, 'Get inside. This man has loaded his weapon,'" Garcia recalled to the AP. "My wife told me to go inside because 'he won't fire at me, I'm a woman.'"

Garcia's wife, 25-year-old Sonia Argentina Guzman, was at the front door and was the first to die in the massacre.

"Everybody that was shot was shot from the neck up almost execution-style, basically in the head," said San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers.

The other shooting victims included Garcia's 9-year-old son, Daniel Enrique Laso; Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and José Jonathan Cásarez, 18.

The two women died while protecting Garcia's baby and 2-year-old daughter, police said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott identified the victims as "illegal immigrants" in a statement in which he offered condolences to their loved ones, sparking an onslaught of criticism.

One of the slain women had told Garcia to jump out a window during the carnage "because my children were without a mother and one of their parents had to stay alive to take care of them," Garcia said, according to the AP.

Garcia told KTRK-TV that the shooter "couldn't catch up to me" and that the "bullets were hitting" all over the place.

"I am trying to be strong for my children," a weeping Garcia said, according to the AP. "My daughter sort of understands. It is very difficult when she begins to ask for mama and for her [older] brother."

Oropesa fled in the wake of the incident and authorities have launched a manhunt to find him. He has been described by the FBI as "armed and dangerous."