2 Bradenton Armed Robbery Suspects Charged, Third Found Dead

BRADENTON, FL — Two suspected Bradenton armed robbery suspects were arrested Friday and the body of a third was found in a creek where it had allegedly been left by his accomplices, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

Forty-one-year-old Reynaldo Guevara Osorto and 34-year-old Ramon Guevara Velasquez were both charged with armed robbery and murder, the sheriff's office said Friday.

The robbery occurred at 8:19 p.m. on Dec. 1 at AAA Laundry & Dry Cleaning in Bradenton when "two masked men walked into the laundry, one armed with a rifle the other with a black pistol," the sheriff's office said. "They ordered everyone on the ground and took several thousand dollars from the business."

An employee of the business followed the men outside with a gun and opened fire. "While in the parking lot, one of suspects pointed his rifle at the victim and the victim started shooting," the sheriff's office said of the employee. "The suspects fled in a light colored two-door car east behind the 7-Eleven."

The sheriff's office said the employee who fired at the bandits did not know whether he hit anyone at the time.

"Through further investigation detectives established Reynaldo Guevara Osorto and Ramon Guevara Velasquez as suspects in the armed robbery," the sheriff's office explained. "They told detectives that Ramiro Mendez had been hit with at least one bullet that night. He later died and they decided to leave his body in Gilley Creek at 22900 County Road 675."

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office Dive Team and Marine Unit recovered Mendez' body at 9:30 a.m. Friday in Gilley Creek, east of Manatee County.

The employee who opened fire was not charged.