ATLANTA (TIP): Vivek Saini, a 25-year-old Indian student from Haryana, who had come to the US to do his master’s in business administration was killed by a homeless man inside a store in Lithonia, Georgia.
The incident occurred on Jan 16, a local channel reported. Witnesses cited by the channel said Saini was brutally attacked with a hammer by the homeless man late at night after he asked him to leave the store.
Notably, employees at the food mart including Saini, had been feeding and sheltering the homeless man, identified as Julian Faulkner, for days.” He asked us for chips and coke. We gave him everything including the water,” one of the employees at the food mart, told media.
” He asked if I could get a blanket. I said we don’t have blankets, so I gave him a jacket. He was walking in and out asking him for cigarettes, water, and everything. He was sitting here all the time, and we never asked him to get out because we know that it’s cold.”
On Monday night, Saini told Faulkner that he needed to leave or else he would call the police. As the student was preparing to go home, Faulkner attacked him with a hammer and “kept on hitting for almost 50 times on the face on the head.” Saini suffered from ”severe head trauma” and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers got a call around 12:30 am about an assault at a Chevron gas station in Lithonia, according to DeKalb County police. When officers arrived, they found a man, identified as Julian Faulkner, standing over a store clerk and holding a hammer in his hand, according to a police report.
Officers ordered the man to put down the weapon, and he complied before being arrested and escorted outside to a patrol vehicle. Two knives and another hammer were seized from him, the media reported.
A” substantial amount of blood spatter” was found on the floor of the convenience store. Cops also found a store clerk, who was hiding in the back of the booth” visibly shaken and could hardly speak due to fear.”
Faulkner remains in jail on charges of malice murder, and interference with government property.
Meanwhile, Saini’s family in Barwala, Haryana, told local media he had gone to the US two years ago after completing his BTech in Computer Science from Chandigarh University. He had recently completed his master’s in business administration from Alabama University.
“He was a brilliant student who just wanted a decent job to support himself and his family,” Saini’s cousin Simran said. The entire family is still reeling from Vivek’s brutal death and his parents, Gurjeet Singh and Lalita Saini, were not in a condition to talk about what happened.