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More than nine months after a fire at Avenue Liquors killed two employees, Redwood City police said Thursday that investigators believe longtime store manager Benigno “Benny” Nuguid Pare was found with chains around his wrists and intentionally ignited gasoline inside the business.
The Redwood City Police Department has not provided a motive.
Police and the Redwood City Fire Department found the liquor store at 2147 Roosevelt Ave. fully engulfed in flames at around 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 3, 2025, and the shop has been closed ever since. During their efforts, they opened the roof and found the two bodies inside the store. Both were deceased and showed “severe burns,” according to the November press release.
Pare, 56, one of the staff, was found with a chain around both wrists, secured by a lock, the Redwood City Police Department said. A subsequent exam determined the chain was tightly secured to one wrist, while the other remained loose.
Anil Kumar Sharma, 25, the other shopkeeper, was found dead at the rear of the business as well.
Investigators found both the front and rear exits secured from inside the business, with no evidence indicating that any additional person participated in the incident, according to police.
Pare had a wife and four children in the Philippines, and would tend to the shop 80 or so hours a week, according to attendees at the November vigil for the shopkeepers. Sharma was from India and had a wife and two kids.
According to attendees, after roughly 15 years of shopkeeping, Pare finally felt he had saved enough money to fly home to the Philippines and reunite with his family at the end of November. One of his daughters just graduated from nursing school.
Both men, community members said, worked well over full-time to send as much money as possible to their families back home and were believed to be sleeping at the store when the fire broke out.
In November, police said it was unknown whether the shopkeepers were living inside the liquor store or why they were there so early in the morning.
Pastor Mark Tumney of Peninsula Covenant Church, who led the November service before dozens at Red Morton Park to honor the two men, said Pare “knew Jesus.”
“Not the distorted cultural versions that were given of Jesus, but the real Jesus, the one who walks with the broken hearted, the one who brings people together,” the Pastor said, noting that Pare would regularly play Christian music inside of his shop.
One mother at the vigil shared that she “loved him more than [she] ever like loved anybody.”
While some evidence remains under examination, police said investigators do not currently anticipate that the outstanding results will materially alter the investigative conclusions described below.
The case remains active. Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the Redwood City Police Department at (650) 780-7100.
