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Store Shooting Victims Mourned As Polk Sheriff Releases Surveillance Tape

By Billy Townsend / Tampa Tribune

Polk Sheriff Grady Judd answers questions from members of the Bay Area's Indian community following the funeral of Pravinkumar and Dashrath Patel at Heath Funeral Chapel in Lakeland during Wednesday's funeral. The men were killed in a robbery at a convenience store Friday night.

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By BILLY TOWNSEND | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

Photo Gallery: Store Workers Mourned

Previous Coverage: $20,000 Reward Set In Polk Gas Station Slayings | Surveillance Video | Surveillance Photos

LAKELAND — On the day at leart 200 mourners turned out to honor Dashrath and Pravinkumar Patel, the Polk County Sheriff's Office again asked the public's to help find their killer.

Detectives released surveillance video of a man they want to question. He was a customer at the BP store just off Interstate 4 in Lake Alfred where the two men were shot execution-style Friday night by a would-be robber. The man on the videotape was in the store about 21 minutes before the killings, Sheriff Grady Judd said.

The man is not a suspect in the case, he said, but detectives hope he may have seen something.

The store video shows a black man driving a dark Chevrolet Avalanche pickup. He is seen pulling into the parking lot and walking into the store. He is bald, wears a dark T-shirt with a light-colored logo on the front and has tattoos on the back of his neck. He walks through the store and is seen at the check-out counter.

In addition, video of a white Mitsubishi also was released. The car drives through the parking lot after the crime occurred.

"We need someone to come forward and tell us what they may have seen or heard," Judd said. "We will not leave one stone unturned in this investigation. Something simple that didn't appear suspicious at the time may give us what we need in this investigation."

A $20,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the killings of the Patels, who were not related.

Anyone with information about the shootings is asked to call Detective Ivan Navarro at (863) 287-8313 or Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS (1-800-226-8477).

Pravinkumar Patel, 33, and Dashrath Patel, 50, were killed Friday night by an assailant trying to rob the BP store and gas station at Interstate 4 and County Road 557, where they were working.

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  Pravinkumar, left, and Dashrath Patel

As the two men changed numbers on a gasoline price sign outside the store, a man ran up and shot them in the head at close range.

The killer was unable to break into the store, and a clerk inside escaped harm.

The men were recent immigrants from Gujarat state in India, where most of their family lives, according to mourners at today's funeral services. Their closest family members were not able to attend, but many men and women from the Bay area's Indian community paid their respects.

Funerals for slain store workers in Polk County have become all too common. Eight convenience store owners or employees have been fatally shot during store robberies since 2000. A ninth was wounded but survived. At least six victims were of Indian descent.

Before and after the private funeral service at Heath Funeral Chapel, jacketless men in white dress shirts and dark pants stood quietly alongside women in flowing pastel saris. As the coffins bearing the men emerged from the chapel, the mourners surrounded them and began to chant. The procession led to the hearse that took the men to be cremated.

Many at the service came to bid goodbye to two men they never knew, who died in a way that has become far too common.

"This is five times in the last five years that I've been to this funeral home" to mourn slaying victims, said Dinesh Gandhi, who lives in Pasco County.

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