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Plant City Vigil For Shooting Victim Draws 300 Mourners

News Channel 8 photo by JIM FARQUHAR

Mourners gather at Plant City stadium to remember three men killed last week.

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BY GEORGE H. NEWMAN and PETER BERNARD

The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8

Published: December 10, 2008

Updated: 12/10/2008 10:24 pm

PLANT CITY - More than 300 people attended a Catholic mass and memorial ceremony Wednesday night for two Plant City men fatally shot last week and one teen that died in a car crash Sunday.

Friends and family members gathered at the Plant City Stadium to remember the life of Candelario Lagunes, 58, a bystander shot dead Friday by a man wanted on a murder warrant.

Tom Anastasia, pastor of St. Clement Catholic Church in Plant City, asked the crowd to also remember Michael James Longoria, 36,fatally shot Thursday, and his cousin, Juan Sanchez, 18, who died three days later in a car crash on U.S. 92 and Rogers Road.

All three were members of St. Clement.

"We're just trying to come to be at peace," Lagunes' son, Henry said tonight at the memorial service. "And to move on little by little."

Authorities say Lagunes and Longoria were slain by the same man. Longoria's killing on Thursday prompted the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to issue a warrant for Fransisco Rangel's arrest in connection to the incident.

When Rangel, 25, was spotted by authorities Friday morning, he fired an AK-47 assault rifle at detectives who were trying to arrest him, the sheriff's office said. The gunfire disabled two detectives' vehicles and killed Lagunes, authorities say.

Rangel was arrested late Friday afternoon after a six-hour manhunt through Plant City streets that involved nearly 400 members of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Relatives of the three families wept during the memorial service. Henry Lagunes also grieved, but said he recently received some good news. His wife found out she was pregnant on Monday.

"It put a big smile on my face, it really did," Lagunes said. "It is so weird how life works."

Wednesday marked the first day of the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but church leaders altered the program to include the memorial.

"We're supporting the family for what they're going through," church member Anselma Fernandez said.

An altar was set up on a platform in the infield of a diamond used by softball teams.

"Do not let death have the last word," St. Clement pastor Carlos Rojas told the crowd. "Let life and resurrection have the last word."

Church member Maria Chavez said the community needed the memorial service on Wednesday, although most expected to kick-off the five-day festival with a celebration.

"People here tonight are hoping it is also the start of the healing process," Chavez said.

Tribune reporter Ray Reyes contributed to this report. Tribune reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451. News Channel 8 reporter Peter Bernard can be reached at (813) 225-2718.

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