Indian victims of Pittsburgh shooting
spree were brimming with life
Anuradha Ashwat
Little is known about Anil Thakur, 31, who was among the five people killed in suburban Pittsburgh Friday last in a shooting incident.
Richard Baumhammers, 34, a lawyer from Mount Lebanon, allegedly opened indiscriminate fire at several places in the suburbs surrounding Pittsburgh killing five people and seriously injuring one.
Reports appearing in American media have said Baumhammers was influenced by racial literature. Authorities probing the killings have recovered from his house racially tinged writings and literature that may ultimately help explain what drove a man of privilege to allegedly go on a shooting spree.
Thakur worked at WideCom Group, a South Fayette producer of copiers and scanners. Originally from Bihar in India, he was in the United States on a work permit and did not have a family here.
Another Indian Sandip Patel, who was injured in the firing, had been planning to return to India to marry a girl his parents were to select for him. He is in a critical condition, his face covered by an oxygen mask and buried under tubes that prevent him from speaking.
He worked at India Grocers, a Scott Town Center store he managed for his sister Lena Patel and her husband Vijay. The couple also own India Grocers stores in Monroeville and Ross.
Sandip Patel's parents live in India but were visiting north-east United States at the time of the shooting. They are now in Pittsburgh to be with their son.
Sandip Patel, originally from Gujarat, worked six days a week leaving him little time for anything else. According
to his friends he knew the store like the back of his hand and could find any of the thousands of products sold there.
He is a member of the Hindu Jain Temple in Monroeville, where several acquaintances went to pray for his recovery.
He is a vegetarian who subscribes to the Jain belief that violence is wrong.
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