The youth was arrested on Tuesday evening, but no further details were released (representative)
Washington:
A 36-year-old man of Indian descent was shot dead after a teenager robbed a supermarket in North Carolina, authorities said.
Mainank Patel, the owner of the Tobacco House store at 2580 Airport Road, died after the shooting Tuesday morning, the Salisbury Post reported.
According to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, a male juvenile is in custody for the crime. Because the young man is a minor, officials are not allowed to release his name.
The teenager was arrested on Tuesday evening, but no further details were released.
Officers initially went to the Tobacco House supermarket after a 911 call was made there, said Captain Mark McDaniel, spokesman for the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.
On the way there, they received word that there had been a shooting. When officers arrived at the scene, they found Patel with multiple gunshot wounds, McDaniel said.
The victim was taken to Novant Health Rowan Medical Center and then to Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, where he died from his injuries, the report said.
Surveillance video showed a tall, thin white man running away from the building across the store’s parking lot. He was wearing black shorts, a black hoodie, a black ski mask and white Nike tennis shoes with burgundy logos and appeared to be holding a black handgun, McDaniel said.
McDaniel said the sheriff’s office does not know exactly what the motive was for the shooting, but it currently appears to have been a robbery. No one else was injured.
Patel leaves behind his seven-month pregnant wife Ami and their five-year-old daughter.
Customers and coworkers say Patel would do just about anything for anyone, and the community is mourning his death.
Everyone called him “Mike,” and the many flowers and cards outside his shop, Tobacco House, showed on Wednesday that he was loved.
“It impressed everyone because it was a family, a store that revolves around the whole family,” said Ann Ellis, a customer.
Javier Lopez had been mowing the lawn at the shop for years, even before Patel took over from his cousin, Lopez said, and the Patel family “treated everyone like family.”
I only saw him yesterday morning, and on the way home from work I saw the police and stopped to see what had happened.
“There are simply no words to describe what a great guy Mike was,” he continued.
“He was a super nice man, kind to his customers, loved his family and would have helped anyone,” said Patricia Howard, another regular customer of the store.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
