Gujarat origin student dies in shooting incident in America

From Yoshita Singh

New York

A 21-year-old Indian-origin student at Rutgers University was killed and his roommate seriously injured in a shooting incident at their apartment near the school’s campus in the US state of New Jersey.

Shani Patel, a junior economics major at the university, was shot and killed on Sunday at an off-campus apartment building in Newark, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office as saying.

Patel’s roommate, whose identity was not released, was seriously injured in the shooting, authorities said.

The Rutgers Police Department said the shooting was not random and that the downtown campus, which serves about 12,000 students, was not under threat, The New York Times reported.

Authorities are investigating the incident.

Essex County Prosecutor s office and Newark Public Safety Director said in a statement that no suspects have been identified so far and no arrests have been made.

The investigation “is active and ongoing”, they said.

In a letter to the Rutgers University s Newark community, Chancellor Nancy Cantor expressed shock and sadness at Patel’s death.

“While law enforcement is still investigating and we understand that it was not a random act that led to Shani’s death, it is a shock to lose a member of our community under any circumstances,” Cantor said.

“Our deepest condolences go out to Shani’s family and to all who knew him as a student, colleague, or friend,” she added.

The Rutgers police said in a statement issued to the Newark campus that the shooting occurred inside a private residence.

Two assailants, both believed to be in their early to mid-20s, fled the scene.

Patel was drug case accused

Patel pleaded guilty on June 16, 2014, to the marijuana offense and was sentenced on Sept. 5 of that year by Superior Court Judge Rochelle Gizinski in Ocean County to two years on probation. However, his probationary sentence did not start until Dec. 11, 2015, when he lost an appeal challenging a police search of his car the day of his arrest on April 15, 2013. The search turned up four sandwich bags filled with marijuana and a digital scale, according to court documents. the total weight of the marijuana was more than 50 grams, the court documents said.

The arrest took place after Toms River Patrolman Theodore Malony was dispatched to the Walnut Hollow Condominiums in Toms River to investigate an anonymous tip that a group of young men were smoking marijuana. When Malony got to the condominium complex, he smelled the odor of burnt marijuana coming from a car occupied by Patel and three other young men, according to court papers.

The court papers said Malony was already familiar with Patel from “prior arrests and potential involvement in selling marijuana.”

The only public criminal records on Patel are related to his April 15, 2013, arrest. However, criminal records of juveniles younger than 18 are not public.

In the April 15, 2013, incident, Patel allowed police to search his car, which turned up the marijuana and the digital scale. Billhimer later appealed the legality of the police search, but a panel of appellate judges ruled on Dec. 11, 2015, that the search was lawful.

With inputs from agency