In the quiet city of Wheatridge, Colorado, a community was shaken by the violent and untimely death of Veshraj Lamichhane, a 53-year-old man. On the evening of January 5, 2023, what began as a routine night of work for Lamichhane at the Valero gas station and convenience store he owned on West 44th Avenue took a tragic turn. A customer, sensing something was amiss upon finding the counter unattended, placed a call to 911, setting in motion a grim discovery.
Responding officers arrived to
find a scene that would soon ripple through the neighborhood with shock and sorrow. Lamichhane was found deceased inside his store, the victim of a fatal shooting. Surveillance footage from the establishment would later reveal the harrowing final moments of his life. An assailant had entered the store, attacked Lamichhane, and ultimately shot him before fleeing the scene in the victim's own Nissan SUV. The initial investigation suggested that a robbery had escalated into a senseless act of violence.
The investigation quickly spread beyond the borders of Colorado as law enforcement issued a nationwide alert for the stolen vehicle. The following morning, nearly a thousand miles away in Indiana, a state trooper on patrol along Interstate 64 spotted the Nissan Pathfinder. The trooper attempted to initiate a traffic stop, but the driver refused to comply, leading to a high-speed chase. The pursuit came to an end when the driver lost control of the vehicle, which then rolled several times before coming to a rest in an open field.
The driver, identified as 26-year-old Shawnathan Chance of Dunn, North Carolina, was taken into custody without injury. He was subsequently identified as the sole suspect in the murder of Veshraj Lamichhane. Chance was held in Indiana on a murder charge, as well as local charges for resisting law enforcement, possession of a stolen vehicle, and reckless driving, awaiting extradition to Colorado to face justice for the life he had so tragically cut short. The community was left to mourn a man described by his regular customers as a kind and generous person, a beloved figure whose daily presence was a comforting constant now painfully absent.
