Andhra Student Shot Dead

A pall of gloom has descended at the residence of Jayachandra Elaprolu in Vijayawada city after reports of their 22-year-old son being shot dead in a robbery at the convenience store where he was working in Pasadena, Texas, reached early on Christmas morning.

Relatives and well wishers thronged the Elaprolu family residence, consoling the distraught parents of the M S student, who had been working for about 3 weeks in the store.

Jayachandra had been shot 5 times by a man wearing a ski mask with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, who entered the convenience store at a gas station. The robber-turned-killer took the cash at the counter away with him after the killing.

Jayachandra was dead before the police reached the store after being informed about the killing by a customer.

Closed circuit television footage revealed to the police that the killer walked in the Conoco Gas Station at about 2:20 am on December 25th, shot the student, took the cash and walked away. The sheer mechanical method of the killer left the police to issue a statement describing him as 'very dangerous and cold-blooded'.

Going by the CCTV footage, Jayachandra tried to get away from the killer by entering a small office behind his desk, but was still shot through the door.

The news was conveyed to Jayachandra's family by the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) which is making arrangements to shift the student's body to Vijayawada.

It is expected that the body will reach the city by Thursday.

Courtesy: INN