Report: Drive-by shooting in Pierson Sunday was in retaliation for shooting in Palatka

PIERSON - A drive-by shooting Sunday night in Pierson was in retaliation for a shooting in Palatka where a teen was targeted on Saturday according to families and deputies.

The home, in a remote part of the area and surrounded by farmland, had at least three bullet holes in the front wall, one near a window. Jose Mancilla, who returned fire, was one of several people at the home at the time of the shooting.

He said one bullet went through a wall narrowly missing his mother sitting on a couch, and then struck a television.

"I shot (back at them) with an AK-47," said Mancilla on Wednesday, standing on the porch of his home. "I got scared. I had to protect my family."

Mancilla said he was sitting in his truck when the suspected shooters drove by and opened fire at his parents' home. He grabbed his rifle that he keeps in his truck for self-defense, ran across the street, and emptied a magazine at the vehicle driving by.

The suspects appeared to slow down, so Mancilla loaded another magazine on the assault rifle and fired 16 more bullets into the street.

"They stopped and looked like they were going to come back, so I let them hear the rest of the gunfire," Mancilla said.

Arrested in the drive-by shooting were Zared Castaneda, 18, his 15-year-old cousin, and two other juveniles, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, all DeLand residents.

Castaneda was charged with three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child, discharging a firearm in public, shooting into a building, and aggravated assault. He was being held Thursday at the Volusia County Branch Jail without bail.

The juveniles, who were taken to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Daytona Beach, were each charged with firing into an occupied dwelling, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm from a vehicle, firing a weapon in public or on residential property, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a minor, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.

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Volusia County deputies said they were called to the shooting Sunday at 11:52 p.m. and quickly located the suspect vehicle, a red Toyota Tacoma, and pulled it over. Castaneda was driving the vehicle which contained the three juveniles, a report states.

Castaneda and the juveniles denied being involved in the gunfight. They declined to speak to deputies and asked for a lawyer.

When deputies asked Castaneda and the teens to exit the vehicle they saw a box of ammunition on the passenger side of the vehicle. A search led to the discovery of a backpack that had a Taurus handgun. A second handgun in a black bag was found under the front passenger's seat, the report detailed.

Deputies found a bag with multiple bullet casings and additional boxes of ammunition and spare magazines for the pistols were also located in the vehicle, deputies said. As Castaneda was being placed into a patrol car he gave a possible motive for the shooting, the report noted.

"Off the record, what would you have done if someone shot (at) your little cousin?" deputies said Castaneda spontaneously asked.

Castaneda's mother, Guadalupe Benitez, told the News-Journal Wednesday that on Saturday, Castaneda was getting ready to go to work when his 15-year-old cousin came to visit.

After her son was arrested Sunday, Benitez said that she learned her son's cousin was shot at while he was in his vehicle at a dance in Palatka on Saturday.

"I wish I had known what was happening," Benitez said in an interview at her DeLand home Wednesday.

Castaneda's sister said the Mancilla family put out social media posts saying Castaneda and his cousin were lucky to get away on Sunday night. Jose Mancilla denied that saying no one at his home knew Castaneda and the juveniles.

"We are trying to find out why. They are all young you know, so we don't know why they did it," he said.

Asked if he believed Castaneda and the teens were seeking revenge, Mancilla said he didn't know.

"A detective told me if we knew something about that but we don't know nothing. I told him we are too old for the 15-year-old kid you know," Mancilla said.

"I think they are just trying to do that (say that cousin was shot at) to get away for something they did. We don't have time for that," Mancilla said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Report: Drive-by shooting in Pierson Sunday was in retaliation for shooting in Palatka