Indian student shot dead in Alabama

BRUNDIDGE, Alabama

Neil Purush Kumar, 30, a computer science graduate student at Troy University, was shot dead Wednesday at the J&S Buy Rite Convenient Store in Brundidge, where he was working part time.

The suspect appears to have waited around outside the Gulf Gas Station on Highway 10 to open before making his move.

Pike County Sheriff Russell Thomas said the suspect ‘was in the general area of the store for a time prior to the store opening...it appears that he waited for the store to open.’
Kumar opened the business at 6 a.m. and within four minutes, the suspect enters the store,’ the sheriff said, recapping surveillance video of the crime.

The suspect went behind the counter and was given the money from the register, the sheriff stated, confirming there was no struggle. Kumar was killed almost immediately.
‘He’s inside the store for a short period of time and then exits the store,’ the sheriff stated, ‘in an easterly direction.’

Based on the time stamps, it appears the suspect was in the store less than a minute. At 6:08 a.m., the video shows that after killing Kumar, the suspect casually leaves the property on foot, WSFA reported.

Kumar was shot at nearly point-blank range, Brundidge Police Chief Moses Davenport said. He said at the time that the suspect may have been ready to commit the murder, a brazen act at a store located just a block from the police department.

A cash reward of approximately $4,000 has been raised for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect, a likely capital murder investigation according to Pike County District Attorney Thomas Anderson.

One of his professors at Troy tells WTVY Neil will be missed by the whole community.

"He was a very happy person, he's a happy person, smiled all the time, bright student as well," Chair of the Computer Science Department at Troy University, Dr. Bill Zhong said.

"Everybody was saddened because he was such a wonderful young person, regardless it shouldn't have happened to anyone but being such a wonderful person it really just brought all these memories of him, the good memory of him with us so it really saddened everybody," Zhong said.

Kumar’s family lives in Sharjah. A funeral service is scheduled for July 28 at Dillard Funeral Home in Troy.