Local
West Melbourne store owner now charged with murder after 14-year-old on e-bike dies
Hunter Russey, 14, died Oct. 17, four days after police say store owner Kavan Vishnubhai Patel chased him and hit his e-bike with a car. Patel, who had been released on $40,000 bond, is back in jail without bond on a second-degree murder charge.
A West Melbourne store owner is now facing second-degree murder charges after allegedly striking a 14-year-old on an e-bike at 30 mph following a store break-in
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The West Melbourne store owner whom police accuse of chasing down a teenager on an e-bike and hitting him with his car is now charged with second-degree murder. The boy, 14-year-old Hunter Russey of West Melbourne, died late Saturday, Oct. 17.
Kavan Vishnubhai Patel, 32, owns the Corner Store at 1100 S. Wickham Road. Investigators got an arrest warrant after Hunter’s death, and West Melbourne police rearrested Patel shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, police said. He is held without bond at the Brevard County Jail on the murder charge.
Patel is presumed innocent. The account of what happened comes from police statements and an arrest affidavit, as reported by local news outlets.
West Melbourne police released Hunter’s name with his family’s permission. 321 Daily did not name him in its Oct. 14 report, when he was hospitalized and had not been publicly identified.
A life, and a gift
Hunter was taken first to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne as a trauma alert. Because of the extent of his injuries, he was moved to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, where he remained on life support, police said. His family took him off life support Saturday evening, and he died at 11:46 p.m., according to police.
His family chose to donate his organs. “Despite this tragic outcome, Hunter’s family has made the decision to donate his organs so that he can improve the life and wellbeing of others,” the police department said.
The department offered condolences to Hunter’s family and friends and asked the community to keep them in their thoughts.
What police say happened
Police were sent to the store about 4:21 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, for a reported burglary in progress, Florida Today reported. Patel told officers he had received an alert from his alarm company and that security video showed the front glass door had been broken. “He reported seeing a male wearing a light-colored hoodie leaving the area on an electric bicycle,” the police release said.
According to the arrest affidavit, as reported by FOX 35 Orlando, Patel admitted he followed the boy and crashed into his e-bike at roughly 30 mph. He then turned around, went back to his store and called 911. Police said he did not tell responding officers he had struck anyone and disclosed his role only after detectives confronted him with video showing a vehicle matching his at the crash scene. Patel acknowledged he should have called law enforcement instead, detectives said, but “he was angry at the time of the incident.”
Hunter was found unresponsive in a ditch along Cocoanut Grove Avenue nearly an hour later, police said.
Police have not said whether Hunter was the person who broke into the store. A police spokesperson told local media that investigators could not say with certainty that he was, WKRC reported, citing WESH.
From $40,000 bond to no bond
After his first arrest, Patel was charged with aggravated battery and leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury. At his first appearance Wednesday, Oct. 14, the judge called the allegations disturbing. “The fact that the alleged victim is a juvenile, that’s something,” the judge said, News 6 reported. Bond was set at $40,000.
Sheriff’s office jail records show Patel posted two bonds, of $25,000 and $15,000, and was released Oct. 15. The records list a Nov. 10 court date on the aggravated battery charge.
Since Sunday’s arrest, Patel is back in jail with no bond. The jail record for the new booking lists a Nov. 17 court date on the murder charge. Whether he has had a first appearance on the new charge had not been reported when this story was published, and the records do not show what will happen to the original charges. The State Attorney’s Office for the 18th Judicial Circuit will decide what formal charges to file.
What’s still unknown
The court: whether Patel has had a first appearance on the murder charge, and whether the Nov. 10 and Nov. 17 court dates still stand.
Formal charges: what the State Attorney’s Office files, and what happens to the original charges.
The defense: Patel’s attorney declined to comment after the Oct. 14 hearing, and no defense statement has been reported since.
The break-in: whether investigators have identified who broke the store’s door.
The medical examiner: findings have not been released.
321 Daily will update this story as the case moves through court.
