Eugenio Nicolas Bolainez Vanegas, 44, a male of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, was discovered fatally shot inside ETS Gaming at 1821 Lee Avenue in Sanford after police were called around 5:45 a.m. on a Saturday. Officers said the violence followed an altercation inside the business, and Eugenio Nicolas Bolainez Vanegas, 44, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Local reports and memorial listings place the incident in the early hours of the weekend of September 6–7, 2025, with some records listing September 6 and others marking September 7 as the date of loss.
In the days that followed, investigators identified a suspect and sought the public’s help. Detectives obtained a warrant for first-degree murder for Wilser Joel Aragon Gutierrez in connection with the killing of Eugenio Nicolas Bolainez Vanegas, 44, naming him as the person they believed opened fire during the confrontation at ETS Gaming. Police released his name and image as they asked anyone with information to come forward.
Authorities then located the man they were seeking beyond North Carolina. Wilser Joel Aragon Gutierrez, 26, was arrested in Houston, Texas, and later extradited; by September 25, he was being held at the Lee County Jail, with eCourts records listing him as being from Glen Burnie, Maryland. Charging documents and reporting describe the case as a first-degree murder prosecution tied to the shooting death of Eugenio Nicolas Bolainez Vanegas, 44, inside the Sanford gaming business.
As the criminal case advanced, family and community notices marked the passing of Eugenio Nicolas Bolainez Vanegas, 44, of Sanford, with funeral arrangements and burial in the city. Those tributes, alongside police accounts of the violence that ended his life, sketch a portrait of a weekend morning encounter that spiraled into deadly gunfire and a swift, multi-state search for the man accused of taking his life.
