US NEWS
North Carolina grocery burnt in
suspected hate crime
Graffiti and the burnt store
PHOTOGRAPHS COUR TES Y CLAY COUNT Y SHERIFF'S OFFICE AND DEPUT Y T C WINGATE
RITU JHA
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the
case of a North Carolina convenience store that was burnt
down September 8. The grocery store was owned by a Sikh
family that lives in Clay County. The State Line Grocery
store was heavily damaged in what is a suspected hate
crime.
“It is still under investigation and we have not come to a
conclusion,” T C Wingate, deputy at the Clay County
Sheriff’s Office, told India Abroad. He said the deputies
were called to the store on Highway 69 at 2:40 am. A par-
tial cinderblock was found on site that had been thrown
through a window to gain entrance.
$25,000 reward for
information on
Balbir Dhami’s killer
The daughters of Sacramento,
California-based trucker Balbir S
Dhami, who was shot May 19, have
announced a $25,000 reward for infor-
mation leading to the murderer’s
arrest.
Man killed, girlfriend injured, in
attack outside New Jersey casino
GEORGE JOSEPH
Sunil Rattu died while his girlfriend Radha
Ghetia survived a bullet injury when the
couple was shot after being robbed and carjacked in the parking lot of the Trump Taj
Mahal Casino Resort, Atlantic City, New
Jersey, September 20.
The police arrested Phillip Byrd of
Camden, New Jersey, allegedly a local gang
member, after surveillance cameras caught
him and two others, Eric Darden and
Raheem Simmons (who are absconding),
acting suspiciously at the parking lot.
The incident occurred when Rattu, 28, and
Ghetia, 24, both nursing students, were leaving the casino early morning.
“I don’t know why they killed him,” Rattu’s
sister Neelam Chand told India Abroad.
“They took everything, they could have left
him.”
Prosecutor Ted Housel said, ‘The couple
was robbed and carjacked. The female vic-
tim was forced to drive (her Range Rover) to
the area where the shooting took place’.
Byrd is being held on $1 million cash bail
on charges of murder, felony murder, car-jacking, robbery, theft and weapons offenses.
