REDWOOD CITY — Kevin Prasad spent months trying to persuade a female co-worker at San Francisco International Airport to dump her boyfriend and date him, according to authorities.

After her repeated rejections, Prasad orchestrated the calculated killing of the woman’s boyfriend, shooting him several times at close range, with her sitting just inches away, prosecutors allege.

The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office on Monday filed a murder charge against Prasad in the death of 31-year-old Mark Mangaccat, who was fatally shot April 25 in the driveway of his Daly City home. Prosecutors say Prasad and a second man, 25-year-old Donovan Matthew Rivera of Hayward, followed Mangaccat and the woman from the airport to their Daly City home.

Prosecutors also charged Rivera with murder, alleging he “was aware” of Prasad’s “plan to track and kill the victim.” The district attorney’s office has added a “lying in wait” special circumstance to the murder charges against both men, meaning it is eligible to become a death penalty case. During their initial court appearance Monday, it was determined Prasad and Rivera would be assigned court-appointed attorneys.

The attorneys were not yet assigned as of Tuesday. Prasad and Rivera are next scheduled to appear in court May 8.

Prasad and Mangaccat’s girlfriend worked together at the San Francisco International Airport. Prosecutors say Prasad wanted to go out with the woman.

“She kept telling this guy, ‘No, I have a boyfriend, I’m in a relationship,’ ” San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. “She always pushed him away.”

Wagstaffe said the working theory among investigators is that Prasad killed Mangaccat in an effort to have a romantic relationship with his girlfriend. Prasad worked for Covenant Aviation Security, which provides security services at the airport.

“If he’s out of the way, I can be the guy who comes in. That’s his thought process,” Wagstaffe said.

On the day of the murder, Prasad and Rivera were parked down the street from Mangaccat’s home on Abbot Avenue, according to Wagstaffe. When Mangaccat emerged from his house, got in his car and drove away, they followed.

Mangaccat drove to SFO, picked up his girlfriend from work and drove back home, Wagstaffe said.

As Mangaccat backed his car into the couple’s garage, a masked Prasad walked up and, from a short distance, fired five to six shots at the driver’s side, prosecutors allege. Mangaccat’s girlfriend was not injured in the shooting.

Mangaccat’s mother was home at the time.

“I saw my son, with the blood in his mouth, and I saw a hole, and I said, what happened? So I ran upstairs and called 911, and came back, and tried doing this (CPR) to my son,” she said in an interview with KGO-TV, this news organization’s media partner.

Wagstaffe credits Daly City police for quickly cracking the case.

At first, Mangaccat’s girlfriend had no idea who would want her boyfriend dead, Wagstaffe said. Then she told detectives about a man at work who had been expressing a romantic interest toward her for several months.

Related Articles Bay Area homicides 2018: Map and details “Daly City police did great work,” Wagstaffe said. “They really scrambled nicely and put together a good case.”

Mangaccat and his girlfriend had a 3-year-old daughter together, Wagstaffe said. He added that it was the girlfriend’s last day working for the airport, as she and Mangaccat were moving to Las Vegas.

Mangaccat’s girlfriend said the couple met while working at SFO and had been together for about four years.

“He’s my life,” she told KGO-TV. “He’s everything.”

Staff writer Jason Green contributed to this report.