PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Providence police are searching for suspects in a pair of deadly weekend shootings and say they have a lead in one of those cases.
Daniel Zairis, 24, and Andrei Bonilla, 23, were shot within about 20 minutes of each other on Saturday, according to Major David Lapatin. He said both victims appeared to be targeted, but the incidents aren’t believed to be connected.
Lapatin said the first call came in around 2 a.m. after Zairis was shot while leaving Revel Lounge on O’Connell Street.
“He had come out, he appears to be walking by a man who took out a weapon and shot him several times,” Lapatin said, adding that people he was with had weapons and apparently fired back at the shooter.
Zairis was taken by friends to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
In the meantime, Bonilla had gone to see a woman on Harwol Court and was in the car with her when a man described by Lapatin as “her ex-boyfriend or a man who has a child in common with her” approached.
The man was later identified as Andrew Mangru, 22.
Mangru was upset by the woman being in the car with Bonilla, according to Lapatin, and after she got out and exchanged words with him, he allegedly took out a gun and shot Bonilla through the window.
Lapatin said Bonilla drove off and eventually hit a guardrail outside a convenience store on Branch Avenue.
As that happened, Lapatin said Mangru took the woman inside the house and assaulted her until other people came to her aid and forced him out. As he fled, they went looking for Bonilla, eventually finding him in his car. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Lapatin.
Anyone with information on Mangru’s whereabouts is asked to contact Detective Jared Sherman at (401) 243-6337 or jsherman@providenceri.gov, or Detective Sergeant Terrence Green at (401) 639-0674 or tgreen@providenceri.gov.
Video Now: Major Lapatin briefing (story continues below)
During an emergency meeting on Saturday, the Providence Board of Licenses voted to close Revel Lounge until a formal hearing this week.
The hearing was initially scheduled for Monday, but chairman Dylan Conley said it’s been delayed until Wednesday to give the board more time to review the evidence.
“The club doesn’t open until Thursdays, so there’s no prejudice in extending the required closure until our regularly scheduled Wednesday meeting,” Conley noted.