National guardsman and blind 11-year-old daughter shot dead in parked car outside Massachusetts home

On Tuesday, an Army national guardsman and her blind daughter were shot dead while sitting in a parked car outside their home in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The incident occurred around 3 pm and police have taken one suspect into custody. Authorities are still searching for an accomplice who they believe to be "armed and dangerous."

Chastity Nunez, 27, was killed in the gunfire along with her 11-year-old daughter Zella Nunez, who is blind. Chastity Nunez was a mother of two and was getting ready to return to service on Saturday with the Connecticut Army National Guard, Daily Mail reports.

Karel Mangual, 28, was arrested on Wednesday and has been charged with armed assault to murder and carrying a gun without a license. Police are searching for Mangual's alleged suspected accomplice, 27-year-old Dejan Belnavis.


(Suspect Karel Mangual. Credit: Worcester Police)


(Suspect Dejan Belnavis. Credit: Facebook)

Court documents show that investigators obtained security surveillance footage that shows Mangual and Belnavis approach the SUV and opening fire.

The two suspects then fled the scene by running down a street toward a white Acura TLX vehicle.

A witness gave police a license plate number which led authorities to a home, however, the homeowner told police that Belnavis had been allegedly using the car for the past year.

Police located the vehicle near the home of one of Belnavis's relatives in Hartford.

Investigators are working to determine if there was a motive for the shooting.

Nunzez's colleagues described her to the Daily Mail as "incredibly resilient and brilliantly intelligent."


(Chastity and Zella Nunez. Credit: Facebook)

Tyrae Sims, Chastity's cousin, told NBC Boston: "I just hope they know the gravity of what they just did. They took two beautiful souls senselessly."

Noemi Nunez, Chastity's mother, said that her daughter had spent four years at Worcester State University and earned two master's degrees before starting work at MIT last year.

"She was a professional, she wasn't out there like that, she was a hard worker supporting her daughters," said Noemi Nunez. "We have no idea what happened."

Zella Nunez, who Sims described as "the best," was a student in the fifth grade.

"So full of life, such a good little girl. She didn't deserve it at all," said Sims.

Chastity Nunez leaves being a 2-year-old daughter named Isla who was not in the vehicle at the time of the shooting.

"She loved those girls with all her heart," he added. "She's gone, Zella's gone and her other daughter is without a mother and a big sister, it's crazy."