A 21-year-old youth from village Khotaran of Banga in Punjab’s Nawanshahr district was shot dead in Fresno City of California on Tuesday night. Dharampreet Singh Jasser was killed by four armed robbers while on duty at a local grocery store next to a gas station.
Dharampreet had moved to the US in February of 2015 and stayed with his paternal grandparents who had settled there some years ago. He worked part-time at a grocery store at a petrol pump, his family here said. His parents, a sister and the rest of the family came to know about his death on Wednesday morning when his grandfather, Bhag Singh, called up.
Dharampreet was shot dead by one of the four armed robbers who came in a car to a mini-store of Box Gas Station to loot the store on Tuesday morning (India time).
He immediately hid behind a counter but was shot dead by a robber when the latter was fleeing the store and Dharampreet tried to see him.
Jagdeep Singh Jasser, an uncle of the deceased, said that the family was shaken and the parents — father Inderjeet Singh and mother Kamaljeet Kaur — were not in the condition to talk.
“It may be a hate crime as we have been informed that the robbers exchanged heated arguments with Dharampreet and one of them opened fire at him before leaving the store,” he said.
“Police will have the post-mortem examination conducted on Thursday, and later we will decide about his cremation to be done in the US or if the body shall be brought to India,” he said.
Villagers were in a state of shock and mourning when this correspondent visited Dharampreet’s home on Wednesday. They thronged the house of Santokh Singh, maternal great-grandfather of the deceased.
Victim’s father Inderjit Singh, a truck driver, resides with his maternal grandfather.
Both his parents and Amandeep, twin sister, were inconsolable and not in a condition to talk.
With tears welling up his eyes, Dharampreet’s uncle Jagdeep Singh said the youth was studying law in the US and was in the final year of his course. He was doing a part-time job alongside his studies.
