Police said an argument outside a Sunrise banquet hall ended with a guest being shot six times.
SUNRISE, Fla. — A private security guard was jailed on a murder charge Monday after police said he shot and killed a man who used a wheelchair during a dispute outside a birthday party at a Broward County banquet hall early Sunday.
Investigators said the violence began with a fight over who could enter the event, then quickly turned deadly outside Five Star Banquet Hall on West Oakland Park Boulevard. The case drew attention across South Florida because the suspect, Francisco Navarro Sanchez, lives in Miami-Dade County, while the shooting happened in Sunrise. By Monday, the victim had been publicly identified as Kendrick English, and court and jail records showed Navarro Sanchez was being held without bond as the homicide case moved into Broward County court.
Police said officers were called to the banquet hall just after 1:30 a.m. Sunday after reports of a shooting outside the venue at 6072 W. Oakland Park Blvd. A birthday celebration was underway inside, with more than 100 people tied to the event, according to local reporting on the arrest record. Investigators said Navarro Sanchez, 26, had been hired as armed security and was responsible for checking the guest list and keeping out anyone who was not invited. English, who used a wheelchair, was among people trying to get in. Detectives said other guests wanted him allowed inside, but Navarro Sanchez refused because his name was not on the list. A verbal dispute followed. According to the arrest record described by local news outlets, English left the area and then returned, trying a second time to get in.
During that second confrontation, police said, the argument grew sharper. Investigators wrote that English insulted Navarro Sanchez with a profanity, and that Navarro Sanchez then pulled a Glock 19 from his holster and fired several rounds. Witnesses told officers they heard about six shots. English was hit six times, according to the report: once in the neck, twice in the abdomen, twice in the left shoulder and once in the forearm. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died despite treatment. Police said Navarro Sanchez put the gun back in its holster and fled. Detectives later reached him by phone, and he returned to the scene and surrendered without incident. Authorities have not publicly described any evidence that English was armed, and the public record available Monday did not show any claim of a weapon in his possession.
The victim’s identity added another layer of grief to the case. WSVN reported that English had been confined to a wheelchair since 1995, when he was paralyzed while playing football at Stranahan High School in Fort Lauderdale. NBC6 later reported that relatives and friends gathered to mourn him and remembered him as gentle and well known in the community. That history turned what might have been another late-night violence case into a story many South Florida residents immediately recognized as larger than a single argument at a party door. The basic facts remained tightly focused, though: a crowded private event, a gatekeeping dispute, a security worker with a handgun and a guest who never made it inside. Police have not said whether surveillance video captured the full confrontation, though the early account suggests detectives relied on witness statements and the suspect’s return to the scene to build the case quickly.
By Monday afternoon, Broward County court records showed Navarro Sanchez facing a first-degree murder charge, though some earlier television reporting described the case as second-degree murder while the arrest paperwork was being summarized publicly. A judge denied bond, and inmate records showed he remained at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale. Broward County Circuit Judge Francis I. Viamontes was listed to preside over the case. The formal charging path, including whether prosecutors keep the count as filed or adjust it after reviewing evidence, is expected to become clearer in upcoming court proceedings. Investigators also still have not publicly answered several key questions, including whether there was any physical contact before the shooting, how close the men were standing when the shots were fired, and whether anyone at the crowded event tried to intervene before gunfire erupted.
Outside the legal steps, the scene described by witnesses was stark: a birthday celebration with a long guest list, a line at the door and then gunfire in the middle of the night. The contrast between the festive setting and the speed of the violence has shaped much of the public reaction. In local coverage, reporters said guests had pushed for English to be let in before the dispute turned fatal. Family and community voices gathered afterward not around a broad public mystery, but around a loss that police say unfolded in seconds. For now, the case stands as a homicide investigation rooted in a very narrow dispute with very wide consequences for two families and a party that ended with patrol cars, evidence collection and a defendant booked into jail by sunrise.
As of Monday, Navarro Sanchez was in custody without bond and the Broward County case was moving toward its next hearing, while police and prosecutors continued reviewing witness accounts and the full record of what happened outside the hall early Sunday.
Author note: Last updated April 13, 2026.