A four-day manhunt for a man accused of  killing five of his neighbours, including a child, ended Tuesday when police found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of dirty clothes in the wardrobe of a house in Texas.

Francisco Oropeza, 38, was captured about 20 miles from his home in the rural town of Cleveland, where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbours with an AR-style rifle.

The victims had earlier asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because it was keeping a baby awake.“They can rest easy now, because he is behind bars,” San Jacinto County Greg Capers said of the families of the victims. “He will live out his life behind bars for killing those five.”

Drones and scent-tracking dogs were used during a widening search that included combing a heavily wooded forest a few miles from the scene. Governor Greg Abbott offered $50,000 in reward money as the search dragged late into the weekend.

A tip from the public led police to find the man in a house near Conroe, about 40 miles north of Houston.

FBI spokesperson Connor Hagan said the three agencies that went in to arrest Mr Oropeza were the US Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety and US Border Patrol’s BORTAC team.

Mr Oropeza is a Mexican national who has been deported four times, according to US immigration officials.

Mr Capers said that prior to Friday's shooting deputies had been called to the suspect’s house at least one other time previously over shooting rounds in his yard.

All of the victims were from Honduras. Wilson Garcia, who survived the shooting, said friends and family in the home tried to hide and shield themselves and children after Mr Oropeza walked up to the home and began firing, killing his wife first at the front door.

In offering the reward, Mr Abbot called the victims “illegal immigrants," a partially false statement that his office walked back and apologised for Monday after drawing wide backlash over drawing attention to their immigration status. Mr Abbott's spokeswoman Renae Eze said they had since learned that one of the victims may have been in the country legally.

The victims were identified as Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9.

Osmán Velásquez, Diana's father, said Tuesday that his daughter had recently obtained residency.

“Her sister convinced me to let her take my daughter. She told me the United States is a country of opportunities and that’s true," he said. "But I never imagined it was just for this."