In Lancaster, South Carolina, police are investigating the murder of Harnish Patel—the fourth Indian man to be shot, and the second to be killed, within the last few weeks in the United States. The 43-year-old man was shot and killed in front of his own home on Thursday, after returning home from working at the Speedee Mart convenience store, which he owned. Patel had lived in the United States for 14 years. Local news reports he was married and had one child in elementary school. He was originally from the Indian state of Gujarat.
He was shot and killed only one day before a Sikh man, Deep Rai, was shot and wounded outside his home in Kent, Washington, by a man who yelled “Go back to your own country.” Both shootings come after Srinivas Kuchibhotla was shot and killed by a white man in Kansas who yelled “Get out of my country,” before opening fire on him and his friend, Alok Madasani, who was wounded in the attack.