Providence police identify suspect in one of two deadly weekend shootings

Barry Chin/Globe Staff

PROVIDENCE — Police are investigating two shootings that turned deadly early Saturday morning.

Commander Thomas Verdi said the first shooting occurred on O’Connell Street in front of Revel Lounge in the Lower South Providence neighborhood.

A 24-year-old man, identified as Daniel Zairis of Providence, was shot around 2 a.m. and taken to Rhode Island Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Verdi said the Board of Licenses held an emergency meeting Saturday morning in response to the shooting outside the nightclub.

“The BOL voted to close the establishment until this matter can be heard as a full Show Cause Hearing scheduled for Monday August 30th, 2021,” he said in a statement.

The owner of the lounge was notified and served with a closure letter.

Verdi said that about 20 minutes later, another shooting occurred at a gas station on Branch Avenue. The victim, a 23-year-old man identified as Andrei Bonilla of Providence, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Providence Police are seeking information on Andrew Mangru, 22, of Providence who is wanted in connection to Bonilla’s death. Major David Lapatin said Monday that it appeared that both victims appeared to be targeted, however police do not think the incidents are connected.

Bonilla had gone to see a woman on Harwol Court and was in the car with her when a man Lapatin described as “her ex-boyfriend or a man who has a child in common with her” approached, who was later identified as Mangru.

Mangru appeared to be upset by the woman being in the car with Bonilla, and when she got out, and exchanged words with him, Mangru allegedly took out a gun and shot Bonilla through the window, said Lapatin.

Lapatin said that Bonilla drove off and hit a guardrail outside of a Cumberland Farms store on Branch Avenue. Mangru took the woman inside her own house and allegedly assaulted her until other people came to her aid, forcing him out. Mangru fled, and Bonilla was found in his car and pronounced dead at the scene, said Lapatin.

The shootings mark the city’s 17th and 18th homicides this year.