Wire Report
AKRON, Ohio – A white Ohio resident is being jailed on a $3 million bond after shooting and killing a Black woman and her 12-year-old son after a confrontation over a parking spot, according to media reports.
Brandon Casto, 28, was charged with two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault in the shooting death of Tania Mangual and her son, Jericho, after a parking dispute at a local apartment complex, police said.
The boy died at the scene, while his mother died from her injuries at a local hospital, according to reports. A 2-year-old child was also inside the vehicle and survived without injuries.
A third shooting victim, Sabrina Glover, 49, survived by pretending to be dead after Casto fired the gun at her, grazing her hair.
The incident began when Mangual reportedly parked in a driveway that blocked a car belonging to a resident of the complex, Glover told media outlets. She said a confrontation started over the parking situation and quickly escalated.
Casto reportedly arrived at the scene armed with a handgun and confronted Mangual while she was inside her car.
“He walked up to her driver’s door and he got the gun out and he cocked it back,” Glover said, “and then ‘bam, bam, bam, bam.’ I mean, he just unloaded the clip. I was standing right there, I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t yell, I was just like, I was stuck.”
The car then rolled into a wooded area across the street and caught fire, police said.
Glover said Casto then turned the gun toward her. Chilling surveillance video showed Glover running for her life and hiding behind a car as Casto chased after her.
“Oh my God, don’t do it, don’t do it!” Glover is heard yelling in the security video.
After a brief verbal exchange, Glover said Casto fired one shot at her. The bullet missed her body but grazed her hair, she said. Still, she fell to the ground as if she’d been shot and pretended to be dead.
“I put my arm like this and he shot, but he missed, he missed,” Glover told media outlets. “I don’t know where (the bullet) went, but it went through my hair. I felt the wind of it, you know, like the whoosh. I don’t know where he went and then I was laying there. I was like ‘oh my God, he missed,’ but I played dead.”
Casto later fled more than 180 miles to southern Ohio before surrendering to police near the West Virginia border. Investigators said he contacted friends and family admitting involvement and was later taken into custody.
Police searched a property linked to him and recovered multiple firearms and ammunition. City officials and school leaders expressed condolences following the tragedy. The victims’ family set up a GoFundMe account to help with funeral expenses. It has so far raised over $13,000.
