Columbus business owner shot outside Synovus bank was depositing money, partner says
The Columbus businessman fatally shot Monday outside a Synovus bank branch on Buena Vista Road was getting ready to celebrate his daughter’s third birthday.
Amit Kumar Patel, owner of Pyramid gas station at 3512 Buena Vista Road, was pronounced dead outside the bank at 10:09 a.m. by Muscogee County Deputy Coroner Charles Newton. The bank building also houses the Columbus Police Department’s East Precinct, the entrance to which is only feet from where the victim was shot.
Vinnie Patel, Amit Patel’s partner in the gas station but of no relation to the victim, said Amit Patel was depositing money and receipts from over the weekend when he was shot at the bank entrance. The shooter took the money, he said.
The two have been in business together for six years, he said.
“I don’t have words for it,” Vinnie Patel told the Ledger-Enquirer. “Today was his daughter’s birthday.... He was getting ready to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.”
Now it’s a milestone the little girl may never forget, because of her father’s death, he said.
Vinnie Patel said his partner typically deposited money from the business’ weekend trade on Mondays. “Before he got into the bank, this incident happened,” he said.
Police believe he was targeted, the partner said: “They feel like he was followed, but not sure if he was followed from the store, or something happened at the bank..... We don’t know, at this point.”
Amit Patel was good at his work, and well liked, Vinnie Patel said: “He was a super guy, a super nice guy. He ran a very smooth operation, very intelligent.”
The deputy coroner said the case is being investigated as a homicide, marking Columbus’ 65th homicide of 2021.
In a news release Monday evening, Columbus police said they were called to the shooting at 9:34 a.m. They asked anyone with information on it to contact Detective Sherman Hayes at 706-225-4268 or shayes@columbusga.org.
Police released no information on suspects or arrests in the case.
Officers removed crime scene tape from the bank parking lot at 1:47 p.m., but the business remained closed afterward. The bank is about a mile west of the Patels’ Pyramid convenience store and service station, which was busy Monday afternoon when a Ledger-Enquirer reporter stopped in.
The L-E has contacted a Synovus representative for comment, and will update this story when more information is available.
This story was originally published December 6, 2021 at 11:51 AM.