TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Was the death of an apartment manager, a constable and a tenant preventable? According to a woman who says she is the former apartment manager where it happened, she sounded an alarm about the shooter. It was weeks before actions were taken.
Kathy Marchetti Castillo says when the eviction warning went on Gavin Lee Stansell’s door, the clock was counting down to the blast of gunfire that killed apartment manager Angela Heath Fox, Constable Deborah Martinez Garibay and tenant Elijah Miranda.
“24 hours later I'm going to evict you. He had 24 hours to make them plan their death," said Castillo. "Debbie and Angela and Mr. Miranda should not be dead. I told everybody that would listen and nobody would listen. They're dead. They're dead. There's no coming back from that.”
Castillo says she sounded the alarm about Stansell almost a month before when she filed a police report about him standing on the apartment playground loading and unloading a gun. She says she was the apartment manager then, but was fired soon after.
She says police told her Stansell was not a threat. TPD disputes that and says it checked on Stansell, did not reach him and could not reach Castillo for follow up.
Castillo says the eviction effort was headed for trouble:
“Okay, so why would you go to an eviction without a maintenance man to change the lock? Why would the management company send the only agent that you have to an eviction for a gun violence charge? Why was there no maintenance to change the locks? There was no TPD backup.”
She hopes what happened will make people learn that evictions can be dangerous and when someone raises a warning it needs attention—immediately.
“I need Angela's dear sweet husband to know that Angela did not die in vain," said Castillo.
"Those little baby girls are going to be somebody and Angela— I sat next to this beautiful girl for 120 days. And we put these properties together…. I'm just really sad she’s no longer here to see her children grow up.”
KGUN 9 has an inquiry out to the law firm that represents the apartment owners. As of this writing there has been no response.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
