New Delhi: An Indian origin father-daughter duo were shot dead inside a convenience store in Virginia, USA, on Thursday. Pradip Kumar Patel (56) and his 24 year-old daughter Urmi were working at the store on Lankford Highway in Accomack Country, Virginia, when they were shot and killed.
The Accomack County Sheriff’s office claims to have arrested a suspect with a weapon. The motive behind the killings has not yet been revealed. The Indian community in the US, meanwhile, has expressed concern at the incident. It would be a matter of worry if the incident turns out to be a hate crime.
Recently, an Indian origin nurse was brutally assaulted by a patient at a hospital in the US. The man, after his arrest, claimed that he had ‘beat the ****’ out of the woman as he considered Indians to be ‘bad people’.
The convenience store in Virginia is owned by Paresh Patel. He told the local media that his cousin’s wife and her father were working at the store in the morning when the man entered and shot them without any provocation. It is unclear whether it was an attempted robbery.
Authorities said that the sheriff’s office responded to a call around 5.30 am (local time). When they reached the store, they found a man and a woman with gunshot injuries. While the man died on the spot, the woman succumbed to her injuries at hospital.
The man arrested for the murders has been identified as George Frazier Devon Wharton (44) of Onancock. Sheriff W Todd Wessells told the media that Wharton is now in the Accomack jail. He has been charged with first degree murder and attempted first degree murder.
