The Gujarati community in Britain are aghast following the death of 49-year-old Vijay Patel, who passed away at a central London hospital on at 7:01pm on Monday 8th January, after being attacked by three young males.
On Saturday 6th January, at approximately 11:45pm, the police were allied by the London Ambulance Service to reports of an injured man on The Broadway, NW7.
Vijay Patel, originally from Anand, Gujarat and lived in Kingsbury, was an employee of a local shop at Mill Hill, and is said to have been involved in an altercation with three male suspects before being assaulted. Patel had refused to sell cigarette paper to the three young males as they are believed to be underage and they were unable to provide suitable identification cards.
The three suspects were unhappy about the decision and threatened to vandalise the shop. Vijay Patel, along with his colleague went outside the store after the teenagers to ensure that no damage was done. However, Vijay was struck once by one of the suspects which caused him to fall to the floor. His colleague was also punched by the suspects. He suffered minor injuries but did not require hospital treatment.
Vijay Patel's colleague who was also injured does not want to be named. He shared, “There were three of these guys but none of them had an ID. One of them got a bank card out and I said 'this is not a form of ID', but they continued threatening and abusing us so I asked them gently to leave because I can't risk my licence over that. They left the shop but they threatened me again afterwards saying 'we are going to smash the shop window.' On that instant Vijay went outside by the door and after a few seconds I went out as well and at that moment Vijay was hit in the chest with a lot of force. He was knocked down and the guys started to hit me as well... I tried to get them away with a board and managed to scare them off.”
Detectives have arrested a 16-year-old boy late on Monday 8th January on suspicion of murder. The suspect has been taken to a North London police station where he remains in custody.
Description has been released of the three suspect. All three are black male teenagers. One suspect wore a red sweatshirt, black jeans and white trainers. The second suspect wore a dark grey or black tracksuit and black trainers, while the third suspect wore a dark coloured hooded sweatshirt and black jeans.
Detective Inspector Ian Lott, from the Homicide and Major Crime Command said, “At this stage we believe this to be an unprovoked spontaneous incident sparked entirely by refusal to let the suspects buy what they wanted. A man lost his life for no reason other than trying to uphold the law. If you know who they are, or where they are, please get in touch and tell us their names. If you saw the three running away from The Broadway and where they went, let us know. I would like to thank the witnesses who have already come forward and told us what they saw. However, I would still urge anyone who is yet to speak with us, and who has captured some of the incident on camera, to come forward to help us. If you saw something that may help but haven't yet spoken to police then please get in contact with us.”
Detectives are continuing to capture footage from CCTV and enquiring from door-to-door. Vijay Patel's family are being supported by specially trained liaison officers.
This is not the first time that attacks have taken place at local corner shops. In 2011, 5-year-old Thusha Kamaleswaran was shot in the chest, at her relatives's shop in Stockwell. Teenagers had attacked the shop with gunfire in attempt to kill their rivals. The bullet hit Thusha in the chest and passed through the seventh vertebra of her spine, leaving her paralysed.
Vijay Patel came to London in 2006 to create a better life for his wife and two children. His wife, Vibha Patel, was visiting relatives in Vadodara, Gujarat, India when the attack took place. They have two sons; 17-year-old Dhruv who lives in India, and another son Neel who is studying a computer engineering Masters degree in Australia.
His brother, Prakash Patel shared, “He was the greatest man in the world. He died trying to protect the shop. He worked all hours to fund [his sons' education] and worked very hard to support the family. We can't believe what's happened. He always wanted to help and do the right thing. He would save money and send it back to India to fund his children's education and our parents.”
He further added, “He fell down backwards so the brain was hurt very badly. It was internal bleeding and they said they couldn't operate.”
One man was subjected to such violence and lost his life for staying within the law. His family have had to suffer such loss all because of the suspects who resorted to violence of the refusal of being sold cigarette papers. Were cigarette papers more precious than the life of a human being to the suspects? Why has it become “cool” all of a sudden for young people to resort to violence to tackle any situation?
If you have any information about the three suspects or their current whereabouts, please contact the Incident Room on 020 8358 0200. Alternatively, you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
