nothin Murdered Clerk’s Widow Expecting 1st Child | New Haven Independent

Murdered Clerk’s Widow Expecting 1st Child

Paul Bass Photo

Chavada, at right, with friend Desai.

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Sanjay Patel.

A year after she survived a fire, Bhavana Chavada once again has found herself surrounded by friends — this time as a survivor of homicide.

Armed robbers fired fatal bullets into the chest of Chavada’s husband, 39-year-old Sanjay Patel, as he worked the cash register Monday evening at the Pay Rite Food Mart at the Citgo gas station at the corner of Forbes and Fulton. (The police Tuesday afternoon released new details of the killing: Two masked men stole some money and a box of cigars from Patel, who was alone in the store at the time. Then both fired on Patel, one with a revolver, one with a semi-automatic handgun. They fled the store on foot.)

Since the killing, members of the Annex neighborhood’s close-knit Indian-American community have kept watch over Chavada.

Chavada, who is 48 years old and six and a half months pregnant with her and Patel’s first child, wept on the couch of her second-floor Farren Avenue apartment Tuesday afternoon as she recalled the husband whose life was suddenly snatched from her.

He was so happy, so happy” about the pending arrival of their baby after years of their trying to get pregnant, Chavada said. When he was home — when he wasn’t working his Monday-Saturday 10 – 12-hour shifts behind the register at the Pay Rite — he urged her to stay in bed while he looked after her.

People in the neighborhood called Patel Sunny” and Jalebi,” an Indian word for a sweet jelly bean-like treat, because he liked to hand out candy to the kids.

Chavada and Patel called each other baby.”

I love you baby! I miss you!” Chavada called out as her friend Slesha Desai brought her a tissue. My heart is broken.”

Looking Out For Each Other

Patel came to the U.S. around 14 years ago from the Borsad, a town in the Indian state of Gujarat, in search of economic opportunity, according to his wife and friends. He worked hard, first at a New Jersey motel, then at the Pay Rite. He worked at least six days a week, sometimes seven.

Chavada was living in New Jersey and working in New York City’s Diamond District in 2009 when she met Patel on a matchmaking site called shaadi.com. They chatted for two days. Then Patel typed: I want to marry you.”

He was living in Connecticut by then, Chavada said. She came to visit him. And she said yes.

They were married in a Hindu ceremony at Westville’s Regal Inn. Later, in 2014, they obtained a civic marriage license.

They settled on Farren Avenue, the heart of an Indian-American immigrant community whose members enjoy outings together, worship together, and look after each other when tragedy strikes.

It first struck Chavada on the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 31, 2014. Patel was at work. Chavada was warming a potato in the microwave, she recalled, when the microwave exploded. Their three-story apartment building caught on fire; 17 people were displaced.

Chavada spent a month in the Bridgeport Hospital burn unit. She couldn’t eat or talk,” recalled Desai, who was by her side then, too. We didn’t know if she would make it or not; she was on oxygen for 14 days.”

Her arms scarred with burns, Chavada pulled through.

She and Patel moved up the hill to a complex of two-story brick apartment buildings where many of the area’s Indian-Americans live, regularly shuttling in and out of each other’s apartments.

Rinal Patel, Chavada’s best friend (not a relation to her husband), rushed to Chavada’s apartment Monday night after Rinal’s husband received a call from the owner of the Pay Rite informing him of Sanjay Patel’s death.

Rinal delivered the news.

She was in shock,” Rinal recalled Tuesday. Rinal’s husband drove Chavada to Yale-New Haven Hospital. Chavada remained under observation overnight because of fears about how her grief could affect the baby’s health.

Chavada returned home Tuesday. Up to a dozen friends of all ages at a time have shuttled through the apartment. They will make sure that for now Chavada is not alone, Desai said. That’s how the community operates.

Everybody sticks together. One is in need — everybody helps,” Desai said. We will be here for her. We don’t want her to be lonely right now, especially with the baby on the way.”

Ohm

Once Patel’s body is released, they will plan the funeral together. Patel’s best friend, meanwhile, was flying to Connecticut from Houston Tuesday to help.

Then, God willing, there will be a baby boy’s birth to celebrate a few months from now.

The boy will be called Ohm. Chavada broke into a short-lived smile Tuesday as she recalled how Rinal’s 5‑year-old daughter Vidhi (pictured) came up with the name.

She came in and kissed me,” Chavada remembered, and said, ‘‘Ohm — this is the name.’”

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