Over the last few months South Asian gas station and convenience workers - three to be exact - have been murdered in central Georgia, and a couple of days ago Asian businesses decided to shed some more light on the murders - by closing up shop and getting their voices heard:
Hundreds of Asian-American business owners rallied outside Macon City Hall today to protest the murder of three men at Central Georgia gas stations and convenience stores in recent months.Hopefully they'll continue to work with local law enforcement to not only prevent more senseless killings, but also find the people responsible for Danny Patel's murder.
Eyewitnesses report that apparently dozens of convenience stores owned by Asian-Americans in Central Georgia are closed today in protest of the killings and so that business owners could attend the rally and the funeral for one of the victims, Jaymal Patel [...]
Macon lawyer George Greer, speaking for the group, says the business people wanted to call attention to violence against business employees, work with Macon police for solutions to the crime problems, and thank police for their work in arresting suspects in two recent shootings.
Jaymal Patel, shot at a RaceWay station on Mercer University Drive last Friday, is the third man fatally shot at a Central Georgia convenience store in about seven weeks.
In July, a robber shot and killed Danny Patel at the Lina Food store on Irwinton Road in Milledgeville. Then on August 30, Dipak Patel was killed by a robber at the Chevron store on Riverside Drive in Macon. A Macon teenager faces murder charges in the RaceWay shooting, and three men face charges in the Chevron case. The Milledgeville shooting of Danny Patel remains unsolved.
