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Journalism of Courage
WASHINGTON, October 17: Two Indian immigrant workers were shot dead `execution-style’ in a brutal robbery-and-murder incident outside Washington on Thursday sending a wave of fear and revulsion through a hardworking community renowned for its business enterprise.
Mukesh Patel, 35, and Kanu Patel, 28, were found face down, shot through the torso, when Law Enforcement officials in a Maryland suburb attended to an emergency alarm at a Dunkin Donuts shop where they worked. A third unnamed immigrant who was left `dead’ by the suspects was found alive with part of his arm and leg shot off.
Police on Friday arrested two men and a teenage girl and charged them with robbery and murder. The black girl, Alicia Holloway, is said to be a 17-year-old school dropout.
According to initial accounts reconstructed by the police, the three suspects walked into the Dunkin Donuts shop owned by Jay Patel located near Andrews Airforce Base in Maryland in the wee hours of Thursday. They intended to rob the place, but for somereason, although they emptied the victims’ pockets before slaying two of them, they did not clean out the cash register.
Police said the crime was not a `robbery-gone-wrong’. The murders appeared premeditated and were so brutal and cold-blooded that after having shot the three men, the suspects actually attended to a blonde female customer who walked in shortly before 4 am and sold her a cream doughnut. Soon after, they set the place on fire and fled. Police and firemen were alerted by the alarm which went off.
“It was an out and out execution. They went into the store with the intention of killing the victims. They made them lie down and then executed them. That’s what makes it so heinous,” police spokesman Royce Holloway told the local media. The slayings dominated the local television news on Thursday and Friday.
Police was tipped off by an acquaintance who is said to have witnessed a part of the crime. The female customer also called in after hearing about the killings. The Dunkin Donuts outlet islocated in Maryland outside Washington in the Prince Georges County, parts of which are notorious for crimes. This particular Donut outlet, which catered to truckers and late night traffic, had been held up and robbed twice in the past two years, other workers said.
It is housed in a crumbling strip mall that has seen better days with several business having pulled out in recent months allowing delinquents and the homeless a free run of the place.
But regulars at the place, including a homeless hobo told the local press that the Patels were kind and popular souls who, typical of their community, worked hard to make a living. On Friday, people left cards and flowers at the scene of the killing.
“It has been a comfortable surrounding for a real estate partner and me many nights when we wanted to relax after a hard day’s work. Your smile and pleasing ways made us feel that way, even when my friend would ask you to make a new pot of decaf coffee,” one woman wrote.
Dunkin Donuts is one of the manyfranchises that the industrious Patel community have begun to take up in big numbers. The Patels completely dominate the motel industry and the newspaper kiosk trade in the United States. The Boston-based Dunkin Donuts Inc has created a memorial fund for the victims and their families and pledged $ 20,000 and invited the public to donate as well. Police did not say when or which part of India the Patels came from.
