A Telugu man was shot dead by some miscreants in a departmental store in Escasmbia county in Florida State on Wednesday and he has been identified as Kotha Govardhan Reddy.
Quoting local reports, representative of a Telugu association said the incident apparently took place at 8 p.m. on Tuesday when two men entered the store and shot dead the clerk in a robbery attempt. Reddy was working in the store attached to the filling station between the Baldwin county line and Penscola city limits.
Reddy apparently died on the spot. The deceased hails from Rahimkhanpet in Atmakur mandal of Yadadri district and went to the US seven years ago. Family members of the victim in Raheemkhanpet village here say that they were informed of the news by Govardhan’s friend and had no other information.
Govardhan had left India seven years ago and had been working as store clerk while his wife with teenage daughters live along with the in-laws, an army retired person and a home-maker, in Raheemkhanpet village.
Long procedure
Representatives of Telugu Associations said that it might take a week for the body to reach India as the procedure for post-mortem is long and delayed in the US.
Parmesh Bheemreddy, president of American Telugu Association (ATA) said their representatives along with other Telugu associations are helping the family to make arrangements to send the body to India.
In a separate incident, an Indian-American couple was found dead in their home in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston in Texas. The dead were identified as Sreenivas Nakirekanti (51) and his 46-year old wife Shanti Nakirekanti. While Shanti was found with an injury on her head apparently due to a gunshot, her husband was found in their bedroom with a wound in his chest inflicted by the same gun.
Police suspect that Sreenivas had shot Shanti first and then killed himself. The reasons are yet to be known. The couple have a 16-year old daughter who was asleep at home at the time of the shooting. They also have a 21-year old son who is studying at the University of Texas.
Local Telugu residents and friends of the couple revealed that Sreenivas was working with an energy company while Shanti was a software engineer. The couple never had any problems and were in fact involved in charity activities and community activities in Houston.
