With the nation still in shock from the killing of an Indian engineer in the US last week, another Indian-origin businessman has been shot dead outside his home in South Carolina, media reports said.
Harnish Patel had closed his shop at 11.24 p.m. and barely ten minutes later he was shot dead outside his house in Lancaster, a media report said.
Patel’s death comes two days after President Donald Trump had condemned as “hate and evil” the killing of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, the previous Wednesday in a Kansas bar.Local officials in Lancaster, however, did not believe that Patel’s killing was a bias crime as investigations are on, The Herald reported
“I don’t have any reason to believe that this was racially motivated,” County Sheriff Barry Faile said on Friday.
In the February 22 Kansas killing, Kuchibhotla was shot dead by a man screaming, “Get out of my country”.
Another Indian Alok Madasani, who was with the victim at a bar, and an American, Ian Grillot, who tried to stop the shooting, were also shot and injured.
Adam Purinton, a white and a former Navy SEAL was arrested and charged with murder. He had reportedly said that he had shot two Iranians after shooting the Indians.The hate crime was condemned by leaders in both the US and India.
