Nearly six months after a brazen broad-daylight shooting left well-known local figure Arnaldo Vellos dead outside his Corozal District home, Belizean law enforcement has secured criminal charges against two young men in connection with the high-profile killing that shook the small community.
On Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 20-year-old Brandon Sanker and 23-year-old Kevon Armstrong, both residents of Corozal District, were formally charged with murder in Vellos’s October 31, 2025 death. Sanker faces an additional count of attempted murder linked to the same shooting incident, according to official statements from police.
Vellos’s killing shocked the tight-knit Corozal community. The 51-year-old was gunned down in public outside his residence in the Finca Solana neighborhood, an audacious act of violence that drew national attention and left residents demanding answers for months. For weeks after the attack, the case appeared to stall, leaving many community members worried that justice would never be served.
The breakthrough came amid an unrelated law enforcement operation last week: just one day before the murder charges were filed, Sanker was already taken into police custody alongside two juvenile suspects on charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. That arrest, in turn, allowed investigators to close the loop on the Vellos killing, Acting Superintendent Stacy Smith, a staff officer with the Belize Police Department, confirmed to reporters.
“From the incident occurred in October, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Sanker were being sought. We had intelligence as to their whereabouts and when that operation was conducted to apprehend these wanted persons, that resulted in the discovery of the weapon and now the eventual charge of these individuals,” Smith explained in an official statement Tuesday.
Police have not released detailed information about the evidence connecting the two suspects to the killing, citing the ongoing active investigation. Still, the charges mark a major milestone in a case that has hung over the Corozal community since Halloween last year, giving long-frustrated residents hope that justice is now within reach.
This report is based on a transcribed evening television news broadcast from Belize.