A 28-year-old man accused of killing his father at their home in Mount Holly, N.C., was apprehended Jan. 14, days after a statewide warrant was issued for his arrest.

Jiten Patel is accused of shooting his father multiple times in the head on Jan. 11. The motive for the killing is not yet known but police told the judge at his arraignment Jan. 14 that the son had broken into the family’s store and items were taken. The judge denied Jiten Patel’s bond and he remains at the Gaston County jail, said Detective Tony Walker of the Investigation Division at Mount Holly Police Department.

Walker told News India Times the next hearing will be in February, when Patel will either be represented by his own lawyer or will be assigned one by the state.  Ashwin Kumar Vaghibhai Patel, 62, was found dead in his Mount Holly home Jan. 11, Walker who is in charge of the investigation, confirmed. He also confirmed that a note written by Jiten Patel was found at the scene of the crime; in the note the son said he was sorry for what he had done but that his father was in a better place now and that he (Jiten) was going to kill himself. Police put out a warrant for Jiten Patel’s arrest and cautioned people he was armed and dangerous. On Jan. 14, police arrested him after a car chase; the gun was found in the car.

WBTV reported that when produced in court the same day, Jiten Patel gave monosyllabic answers to questions, and seemed unsteady on his feet, closing his eyes and swaying back and forth. News reports said North Carolina Department of Corrections files show he has a past criminal record. According to the Charlotte Observer, the Corrections Department records show Jiten Patel was accused in the past of drug possession and larceny. The Gaston Gazette reported he was convicted of felony larceny in Jackson County, N.C., in August 2005 for which he served seven months in prison. Before that, in December 2002, he was put on probation for a drug possession conviction.

Walker said earlier convictions fade in comparison to the seriousness of the current case. “I look at it as very small compared to what he is charged with now,” he said. No drug or alcohol tests were done on Jiten Patel at the time of his arrest but a wound on his finger was attended to, Walker said.

For Mount Holly, a community of just 14,000 people, this was the first homicide of the year. Walker indicated killings were few and far between and the community was surprised by the event. The last murder in this town was in May 2012, and before that back in 2008.

The Patels own a BP gas station just outside town and a laundry business in Mount Holly. According to news reports, Jiten Patel’s mother was visiting relatives in Raleigh, N.C., and was unable to contact her husband, so she called neighbor Paul Anderson. Anderson went and knocked on the Patels' door and when he got no answer he called the police. Anderson is quoted as saying in news reports that the Patels were a hardworking family with many relatives.
“They’ve got family all the way from the north border to the south border of the country,” Anderson is quoted as saying in the Gazette.

“And they have [a gathering] at least every month or every two months. They’ll have my yard and driveway full [of cars] and their whole front yard will be full of cars.”

Detective Walker called it a sad event. “As I explained to him and his mother, there are no winners. Any killing is sad, but especially so when it involves family members because family is supposed to support each other.”