Indianorigin store owner killed outside home in US
Sunday, 05/03/2017
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
An Indian-origin owner of a convenience store was killed outside his house at Lancaster County in South Carolina on Thursday night, triggering fears of another hate crime after the murder of an Indian aviation engineer in Kansas last week.
The Indian American community held a candlelight vigil in the memory of Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Washington DC on Friday.
Local police said Harnish Patel, 43, returned home around 11.25pm after closing his store, Speedee Mart, on Pageland Highway.
Investigators said he may have been confronted by his killer as soon as got out of his vehicle. He was found dead with two bullet wounds.
Sheriff Barry S Faile said, “We don’t have anything that would lead me to believe it was a hate crime.” He added, “If I was to guess the motive, I would say robbery.”
Local reports also pointed to a robbery attempt.
Patel was married and has a child. “I would have no idea who would do anything like this to him as good as he is to everybody,” Nicole Jones, a family friend, told a local news channel.
However, coming after the killing of Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Olathe, Kansas, in a case of hate crime, news of Patel’s death set off fears of a repeat.
“The County Sheriff has pointed out that this may not be a hate crime. Local authorities are investigating. We will remain in touch with them,” an official said in New Delhi.
The Indian consulate in Atlanta is in touch with the family, the local community and organisations of Indians and Indian Americans in the area, including those from Gujarat.
Police have sought the public’s help to arrest the killer.
Meanwhile, the Kansas shooting figured prominently in talks held recently by a team of Indian officials headed by foreign secretary S Jaishankar with the Trump administration.
The US government urged them to consider the incident an act by an individual and that the American justice system had worked and arrested alleged shooter Adam Purinton.
