Hundreds attend vigil for slain Macon store clerk

Patronia Williams remembers the last time she saw Prakash Patel.

She’d stopped by the Bloomfield Road convenience store, where 40-year-old Patel worked, on her way to church one morning.

“His smile was very friendly, and he was very friendly,” 56-year-old Williams said of the clerk who regularly sold her Newport cigarettes and ginger ale. “That was two Sundays ago.”

Patel was shot multiple times and killed at work Saturday morning by a pair of gunmen who’ve yet to be identified. The men fired shots at another clerk and made away with about $300, according to an incident report from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.

When Williams learned of Patel’s slaying, “I was speechless. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Macon, Georgia needs help.”

She was at a candlelight vigil Wednesday night at the store, near Williamson and Bloomfield roads, where cars and people filled up the small parking lot. More than 200 people came to pay respects to Patel and his family.

“This is a senseless and savage way to die for someone just doing their job,” Sheriff David Davis said. “If these individuals would have asked, I’m sure Mr. Patel would have helped them any way he could.”

Davis said the sheriff’s office is still working to solve the case.

“Somebody knows who went into this store and savagely murdered Mr. Patel,” the sheriff said.

Faye Alexander, 57, of Macon, heads a national peacekeepers group and although she didn’t know Patel, she said she’d lost family members to senseless and violent killing.

“I do what I do because I love doing what I do. I love helping those who have lost a loved one,” said Alexander, who will mark the 20th year anniversary of her son’s slaying Thursday. “More than anything, I hate seeing a family go through what I went through. It wasn’t easy, believe me.”

Juanice Harris, 49, said Prakash Patel would “cut up with you.”

“I’d come in and he’d ring it up and it’d be a dollar and he’d say, ‘That will be $1,000’ ” Harris recalled with a chuckle. “It’s going to feel strange because every time I came in he was here.”

Store manager Ray Patel, who said he is not kin to Prakash Patel, came outside the store for the vigil.

“He was just a nice person, ya know?” 38-year-old Ray Patel said. “Everybody knows him. Everybody knows us too. I’d rather not talk about it. ... We have the funeral (Thursday), so it’s a really hard time right now.”

Patel’s slaying comes about six years after a spate of fatal armed robberies at midstate convenience stores. More than 600 people marched in downtown Macon, calling for peace and safety after three store clerks were killed that summer in Bibb County and Milledgeville.

Dilipbhai “Danny” Patel, 51, was shot to death during a botched robbery July 15, 2009, at the Lina Food Store in Haddock, just outside of Milledgeville. A few months later on Aug. 30, 29-year-old Dipak Patel was fatally shot by a man toting a rifle at the Chevron at 1257 Riverside Drive. On Sept. 4, 2009, 26-year-old Jaymal Patel, of Sandersville, was fatally shot and robbed while waiting for his brother to get off work at the RaceWay gas station at 5127 Mercer University Drive.

This story was originally published June 22, 2016 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Hundreds attend vigil for slain Macon store clerk."