Man arrested in California in connection to fatal shooting of Massachusetts woman, daughter

Police in California have arrested Dejan Belnavis, 27, who was wanted in connection with the deaths of a mother and her 11-year-old daughter in Massachusetts, both of whom were fatally shot while sitting in a parked SUV, authorities said.

Belnavis was arrested Monday following a motor vehicle stop in San Diego, nearly a week after Chasity Nuñez, 27, and her daughter, Zella Nuñez, were found in the vehicle in a Worcester neighborhood, police said. They were pronounced dead at a hospital.

The arrest came several hours after the U.S. Marshals Service said it had doubled a reward in connection with the search for the man, from $5,000 to $10,000.

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Belnavis and 28-year-old Karel Mangual — arrested in Worcester on March 5 — initially were accused of armed assault with intent to murder and carrying a firearm without a license.

Mangual faced a bail hearing Tuesday. "The charge is going to be upgraded to murder," Joseph Early, Jr., Worcester County District Attorney, said at a news conference Monday night. "And when this defendant is brought back as well, he’s going to also be charged with murder."

It wasn't immediately known if the men had lawyers.

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Police said in court documents that surveillance video shows "the victims parked in their vehicle and that two people walk up to the vehicle and start shooting," the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported. 

Video also showed a car consistent with a witness description circling the area before the shooting and leaving afterward, the documents said. The vehicle was later found in Hartford, Connecticut.

Authorities have not released a potential motive for the killings or said whether there was any relationship between the men and the victims.

Nuñez was a member of the Connecticut National Guard and worked as patient safety and clinical quality coordinator at MIT Healthcare Innovation, according to her obituary. She also had a younger daughter.

Zella was a sixth-grade student at Columbus Park School in Worcester who "wanted to dabble in everything from painting, singing, dancing to skating," the obituary said.