‘Chaotic’: 1 dead, another hurt in shooting at Rowan County cancer fundraiser

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — One person died and another was hurt Sunday night in a shooting at a fundraising event in Rowan County, deputies said.

It happened just before 9 p.m. at Rancho Los Gavilanes along Oak Mountain Road.

The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office said the location is frequently used as an open arena event center. Deputies said at the time of the shooting, there was a fundraising event that had drawn a large crowd. Channel 9′s Hunter Sáenz learned it was a cancer fundraiser.

Investigators said when they arrived, they found 19-year-old Rafael Varela Angeles who had been shot in the chest. He was lying on the ground as bystanders tried to give him aid.

He was taken to a Charlotte hospital where he died, deputies said.

While they were still at the scene, deputies learned another shooting victim had been taken to a local hospital in a personal car. They were in stable condition as of Monday, the sheriff’s office said.

On Friday, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office said they arrested 24-year-old Adrian Nicholas Romero-Mandujano in connection with the double shooting. He took an AR-15-style rifle and a pistol from the scene, the sheriff said. He was put in jail under a $2,500 bond after being charged with felony destruction of evidence.

On Monday, Sáenz could see cars still at the scene, as well as plates with food still on them and beer cans littering the area. All were signs that the gathering came to an abrupt end.

Crime tape that was still up by Monday marked the large shooting scene.

A neighbor told Sáenz her grandson was at the event. She said when first responders pulled up, she ran to the scene trying to find him and saw the panic after the gunfire.

“It was chaotic. All the people were running,” Socorro Castro said. “People looking for their sons.”

Castro lives just down the road. She said the fundraiser was for a man battling cancer and she was supposed to attend but didn’t. She knew something was wrong when she heard sirens.

“I saw three guys screaming, carrying one of the victims,” she said.

Castro said she also saw the mother of one of the victims crying out for help.

“She said, ‘My son, my son! Who can take me to the hospital? I need to go to the hospital for my son.’”

Castro can’t fathom that an event was put on to try to help someone fight for their life but ended with another life taken.

The grandmother was able to find her grandson safe. She told Sáenz she knew both of the people who were shot and said they are both young men.

Deputies haven’t said if they’ve found a motive for the shooting but are working to identify the shooter.

Anyone with information is asked to call contact Lt. Ryan Barkley with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at 704-216-8711, or they can call Rowan County Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-JAIL.

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