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Hundreds Attend Mass To Remember Teen, 2 Slain

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN and PETER BERNARD

gnewman@tampatrib.com pbarnard@wfla.com

Published: December 17, 2008

PLANT CITY - More than 300 people attended a Dec. 10 Catholic Mass and memorial ceremony for two Plant City men fatally shot the previous week and a teen who died in a Dec. 7 car crash.

Friends and family members gathered at the Plant City Stadium to remember the life of Candelario Lagunes, 58, a bystander shot and killed Dec. 5 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 Dec. 4, and his cousin Juan P. 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 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 the previous day prompted the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to issue a warrant for Fransisco Rangel's arrest in connection with the incident.

When Rangel, 25, was spotted by authorities about 9:30 a.m. Dec. 5, he allegedly fired an AK-47 assault rifle at detectives who were pursuing him, the sheriff's office said. The gunfire disabled two detectives' vehicles and killed Lagunes, a passenger in a passing car, authorities said.

Rangel was arrested about 3:40 that 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 learned Dec. 8 she is pregnant.

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

Dec. 10 marked the first day of the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but church leaders amended 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," the Rev. Carlos Rojas, assistant pastor, told the crowd. "Let life and resurrection have the last word."

Church member Maria Chavez said the community needed the memorial service, 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.

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