Officials say the suspect surrendered after detectives traced him out of the city following the fatal shooting.
AKRON, Ohio — Candles and a white teddy bear appeared Sunday at a crash site near West Wilbeth Road after police said a mother and her 12-year-old son were shot to death in Akron and the suspect later surrendered in southeast Ohio.
The memorial came together while police and city leaders tried to explain the scale of what happened: a mother dead, her 12-year-old son dead, a 2-year-old child surviving inside the same vehicle and a suspect in custody before the weekend ended. Akron police identified the victims as Tania Mangual, 47, and Jericho L. Mangual, 12. The suspect, Brandon T. Casto, 28, was jailed on two aggravated murder counts and two felonious assault counts. Even with an arrest, the case left major gaps. Police have not said what sparked the shooting, how Casto was connected to the victims or what sequence of events sent the vehicle into the tree line.
Authorities said officers were sent to the area near 30 W. Wilbeth Road at about 8:10 p.m. Saturday after dispatchers received multiple 911 calls. When police reached Hemlock Street, south of West Wilbeth Road, they found a vehicle that had crashed and was partially on fire. Jericho was inside with a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at 8:34 p.m., according to police. His mother, who had also been shot, was taken to Cleveland Clinic Akron General Medical Center and died at about 8:50 p.m. The youngest child in the car, a 2-year-old boy, was not injured. Police said he was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital as a precaution. The image that followed was stark: a damaged vehicle, scorched ground and grieving people returning to the roadside hours later.
For many residents, the visible memorial turned the scene from a police investigation into a public place of mourning. People who knew the family, or said they did, stopped to leave candles and stuffed animals. Those items did not answer the case’s hardest questions, but they showed how quickly the killings spread beyond the immediate victims and into the city’s wider sense of loss. Chief Brian Harding said the violence had “deeply impacted our community” and called the case one of the difficult kinds of calls officers face. Mayor Shammas Malik also emphasized the emotional shock, saying he was heartbroken by the deaths and grateful the youngest child was not physically harmed. Their comments, though formal, reflected the same basic reality visible at the crash site: the deaths of a woman and a school-age boy had become a community wound before investigators had even finished the first round of evidence gathering.
Behind the scenes, the investigation expanded fast. Police said one of the callers was a 49-year-old woman who had been shot and had fled the area. Detectives said the information she gave helped them identify Casto. A search warrant at an apartment linked to him turned up multiple firearms, firearm accessories and a large amount of ammunition, according to police. Investigators also said they learned Casto told friends he was fleeing Akron. That detail shifted the case from a local crime scene into a wider manhunt effort, though a short one. Detectives coordinated with the Meigs County Sheriff’s Office, and Casto later turned himself in there. He was then booked into the Southeast Regional Jail in Nelsonville. Police have not publicly said whether the weapons recovered are believed to be tied directly to the shooting or whether further charges could be filed related to the wounded woman.
The official response has followed a familiar but serious pattern in homicide cases: secure the scene, identify the dead, locate the suspect, preserve weapons evidence and turn to prosecutors for the next step. What remains unusual here is the mix of victims and survivors in one vehicle and the lack of a publicly stated motive at this stage. Those unknowns matter because they shape nearly every other unanswered question, including whether this was a targeted attack, whether the suspect knew all of the people involved and whether anyone else may face charges. Investigators with Akron police’s Major Crimes Unit said the case remains ongoing. That means forensic testing, witness interviews and review of physical and digital evidence are still likely underway as prosecutors prepare for the early court process.
There was also a clear divide Sunday between what police already knew and what the public still did not. Police knew the names of the dead, the name of the suspect and the county where he surrendered. They knew officers had arrived to find a burning, crashed vehicle and a surviving toddler inside. They knew another woman had been shot and escaped. But key details stayed out of public view: no motive, no explanation of who was where when the shooting began and no full description of the relationship between Casto and the victims. In that vacuum, the memorial itself became the most visible fact for neighbors passing by. It marked the place where the violence ended, even as the investigation into how it began moved into court and evidence rooms.
As of Monday, the case remained active, with Casto jailed and Akron detectives continuing to work with prosecutors. The next public milestone is likely to come through court proceedings or a more detailed police update as investigators try to explain what led to the shooting and crash that left two members of one family dead.
Author note: Last updated March 30, 2026.