Murderer Jiten Ashwin Patel had a criminal record, served time in prison.
Bureau Report
NEW YORK: An Indian American, Jiten Ashwin Patel, has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities say he shot and killed his father in Gaston County, North Carolina.
Police have not said what led to the shooting. Investigators were called to a home on Gaston Avenue in Mount Holly last Friday after a relative said they had been unable to reach 62-year-old Ashwin Kumar Vaghjibhai Patel, reported the Charlotte Observer.
As officers and a family member entered the home, they found Patel dead from a gunshot wound. The victim’s car was missing, and evidence gathered from the scene and other information led police to name his son as a suspect in the slaying, said Police Chief David James.
Jiten Ashwin Patel, 28, was arrested around midday Saturday after a traffic stop in Gastonia. He was being held without bond in the Gaston County jail. Police said Jiten Patel lived at the home on Gaston Avenue with his parents.
Ashwin Patel owned a BP gas station on N.C. 16 in Mount Holly, and his wife owned a Laundromat, according to WCNC-TV, the Observer’s news partner. He had lived in the home on Gaston for years with his wife and son.
The Gaston Gazette reported that police found the body of Ashwin Patel inside his home after a family member, concerned about not being able to contact anyone at the residence, called authorities.
Police said he was on the run for about 12 hours until noon on Saturday, when police caught up with his gold Toyota Camry at the top of the I-85 South exit ramp on Ozark Avenue in Gastonia. An officer reportedly recognized the car from a description and checked the license plate.
Jiten Patel had left a note explaining that he was sorry for what he did and that he was going to kill himself, according to the affidavit, said the Gazette.
Jiten Patel has a criminal record in North Carolina. He was convicted of felony larceny in Jackson County in August 2005 and served seven months in prison. In December 2002, he was convicted of a drug charge in Jackson County and placed on probation.
Paul Anderson, who lives next door to the Patels on Gaston Avenue, said he’s known the family for two decades. They’re close-knit and work hard operating a BP service station on N.C. 16 outside Mount Holly and a laundromat on Woodlawn Avenue, near North Main Street in town, he said, said the report.
Anderson said Jiten Patel worked with his father at the BP station and he’d never known the two men to fight. Ashwin Patel was dedicated to his job, he said.
“I’m talking he’d be gone at 5 o’clock in the morning and sometimes not come home until 11 o’clock at night, opening and closing their store,” Anderson said, reported the Gazette. “I cut their grass in the summer because they were never home in the daylight hours to do it.”
Describing them as a close family often hosting reunions, Anderson said the violent death is shocking.
“They’ve got family all the way from the north border to the south border of the country,” Anderson said. “And they have (a gathering) at least every month or every two months. They’ll have my yard and driveway full (of cars) and their whole front yard will be full of cars.”