A 25-year-old Indian student named Vivek Saini, who was working part-time at a convenience store in US’s Georgia was killed by a homeless man. The incident occurred on January 16, local channel WSB-TV reported. Witnesses say Mr. 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 Mr 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 WSB-TV.
He added, ”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, Mr 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.”
The 25-year-old suffered from ”severe head trauma” and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers got a call around 12:30 a.m. 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, as per Fox News Atlanta.
The report detailed the grisly scene, including a ”substantial amount of blood spatter” on the floor of the convenience store, Miami Herald reported. Cops found a witness, who was another store clerk, hiding in the back of the booth ”visibly shaken, and could hardly speak due to fear.”
The student, who had migrated to the US two years ago after completing his B Tech, had recently earned a Master’s in Business Administration.
Meanwhile, Faulkner remains in jail on charges of malice murder, and interference with government property.
