Stanly Kumbanattel killed just one day before his birthday.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A suspect being held by police near Houston, Texas for his role in an armed robbery last week is now being charged with murdering an Indian American man, Stanly Kumbanattel, earlier the very same day.
Nineteen year-old Marquis Davis, along with an accomplice who has not yet been apprehended by police, were involved in the robbery of a House of Pies restaurant on the night of Thursday, March 6, around 10:00 PM. Davis was arrested shortly after the robbery by a patrolling policeman who happened to be in the area, while his cohort is still on the loose. Davis was charged with “aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon” for his role in the restaurant hold-up, but now police are saying Davis was involved with a slaying less than two hours earlier.
Kumbnattel was held at gunpoint by Davis, who wanted to steal his car and use it as his getaway vehicle for the House of Pies robbery. The incident happened at the apartment complex where Kumbanattel, 31, lived, on the 8500 block of the West Sam Houston Parkway. Details are vague, but Kumbanattel was allegedly shot multiple times by Davis around 8:30 PM and died of his injuries shortly thereafter, just one day before he was to turn 32. Meanwhile, Davis made off with Kumbanattel’s Acura.
A statement, released on Monday, says that Kumbanattel is survived by his younger sister and both of his parents, who live in Missouri City. Kumbanattel was born and raised in Houston, going through grade school in the Alief Independent School District but spending his high school years studying in India. He studied engineering at the University of Houston, and was working as a lab technician in various Houston hospitals over the last ten years.
The younger Davis will now face charges for Kumbanettel’s murder, adding to his growing resume of run-ins with the law — in 2012, he was arrested for a misdemeanor truancy charge, last year, he got 35 days in jail on a misdemeanor theft charge, and was also charged with another misdemeanor in 2013 for possessing marijuana.
But the suspect’s father denies that his son was guilty. Speaking to local news outlet KHOU, Marquis Davis, Sr. contends that his son was forced to rob the House of Pies and was only the unwitting passenger in the car when Kumbanattel was shot and killed. His father alleges that Davis fell into a gang, and that he is being compelled to do these things because he’s fallen in with the wrong crowd. In fact, Davis Sr. spent several years in prison for gang-related activities, admitting to local reporters that the prison term has caused him to barely know his own son.
Kumbanttel’s viewing is being held today, from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM local time, at the Knanaya Catholic Community Center in Missouri City.
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