On July 8, 2019, 21-year-old male Travon Deshaun Jones was standing on a sidewalk outside a McDonald's near 31st Street and Van Brunt Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri. During the early afternoon, a man later identified as 40-year-old Albert P. Mangini exited a city bus and approached the area where Jones was located. According to surveillance footage reviewed by investigators, Mangini walked around Jones several times before drawing a weapon from his waistband and shooting him in the back of
the head. Jones was found on the sidewalk by responding officers and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Following the shooting, Mangini entered the passenger side of a blue BMW. He allegedly brandished a handgun to the driver and demanded to be driven away, reportedly telling the driver that he was a 'hitman' who had just performed a 'sloppy hit.' The vehicle traveled north on Van Brunt and onto Interstate 70. Police officers were able to track the vehicle and intercepted it near the intersection of Independence Avenue and Woodland Avenue, where Mangini was taken into custody around 3:00 p.m. that same day. He declined to speak with detectives and requested a lawyer immediately upon his arrest.
Prosecutors in Jackson County charged Mangini with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, and unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with Jones's death. Authorities revealed that Mangini was also a suspect in a separate shooting that had occurred the previous day near 39th Street and Troost Avenue, where he allegedly shot a man in the abdomen during an attempted robbery. In that separate case, he faced additional charges including first-degree assault and attempted robbery.
As the legal process moved forward, questions regarding the suspect's mental competency arose. By April 2022, a court deemed Mangini mentally unfit to proceed to trial, suspending the criminal proceedings. He was ordered to undergo periodic evaluations every six months to determine if his competency could be restored. Jones’s mother, Tracy Jones, expressed her heartbreak over the indefinite delay, stating that she feared she might never see justice for her son, whom she described as a caring individual who often bought food for homeless people in the neighborhood.
