CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (Diya TV) — Police have arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of an Indian American teenage boy who was an employee of a fast food restaurant in suburban Cleveland.
Cleveland Heights police say the man was taken into custody on Oct. 16, he was apprehended after officers spotted a person who matched the wanted suspect’s description. Detectives say they are still investigating the crime.
Official releases said an armed suspect entered a Mr. Hero store Oct. 14 and shot the boy once in the head before taking money from the cash register and fleeing. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office Oct. 15 identified the teenage boy as 15-year-old Sunny Ravi Patel of Highland Heights. He died at a hospital.
“I miss my child,” Ravi Patel, Patel’s father, said through tears, shortly after the slaying. His son wasn’t even an employee of the store, the elder Patel said. The young boy’s aunt and uncle own the restaurant and said he was just helping out for the evening.
“He liked to go there,” Ravi said. “Just give him peace and good life.”
Ravi said his only son was truly a good kid.
“Every night when I came home, he would ask me one question: ‘Dad, how was your day and how was business?'”
Surveillance photos show a suspect wearing a hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses and a rag across his face enter the store with a gun at his side. Police say three customers and Patel’s aunt and uncle were not injured.
The teen’s father said he forgives the man responsible for his son’s death.
“God bless him… Just think before [you do] what you want to do,” he said. Patel was a sophomore at Mayfield Heights High School. The school released this statement on their Facebook page about his death.
A GoFundMe account has also been created to help the Patel family with funeral costs: http://bit.ly/2eP9yxM.
