A growing memorial outside Speedee Mart, a store run by Harnish Patel in Lancaster County, South Carolina; Patel was shot dead on the lawn of his residence on Thursday.

Lancaster, SC (Diya TV) — A 43-year-old convenience store owner originally from India was shot and killed outside his home, just days after the Kansas triple-shooting that left Srinivas Kuchibhotla dead, which the FBI is currently investigating as a hate crime.

Harnish Patel, owner of a business in Lancaster, S.C., was found dead in the front yard of his home with apparent gunshot wounds Thursday, coroner and police officials said.

After closing his Speedee Mart store, he drove home to be confronted by his would-be killer, police said. He had closed his store less than 10 minutes before his death, they added. He was found in his front yard just a few minutes before midnight, according to a statement from the Lancaster County coroner’s office.

Lancaster Police said they received calls around 11:30 pm from residents reporting screaming and gunshots coming from Patel’s home. Sheriff Barry Faile said early investigations do not indicate Patel was targeted for his Indian ethnicity, and the matter is not currently being investigated as a hate crime.

“I don’t have any reason to believe that this was racially motivated,” Faile said.

Friends and customers were in shock and were visiting Patel’s home to offer condolences to his family. “Who would do anything like this to him, as good as he is to everybody,” Nicole Jones, a frequent customer at Patel’s store, told WBTV.

Jones and other friends said Patel was not always worried about the bottom line of his business. “If you didn’t have the money, he’d let people have food,” Jones said.

Patel’s death comes close on the heels of the shooting in Kansas of a 32-year-old Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was killed when 51-year-old US Navy veteran Adam Purinton opened fire at him and his friend Alok Madasani at a bar before yelling “get out of my country.” The shooting last month had sent shockwaves across the Indian-American community with people expressing concerns over their safety in an enviornment of xenophobic and racist rhetoric in the country.

President Donald Trump had condemned the Kansas shooting. He had said America stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms.