In the spring of 2016, the life of a young Indian-American man, Shani Patel, was cut tragically short. At 21 years old, the Rutgers University student was looking forward to his graduation. On the night of April 10th, in his off-campus apartment on Central Avenue in Newark, New Jersey, Patel was fatally shot. His roommate, a 23-year-old recent graduate of the university, was also wounded in the attack but survived.
Investigators who arrived at the scene discovered a substantial quantity
of drugs and money, leading them to believe the motive for the deadly encounter was a robbery connected to narcotics. While Patel was known by friends as an ambitious economics major with entrepreneurial dreams, he also had a history involving drug-related charges. This prior involvement with law enforcement suggested a complicated life that his friends and family may not have been fully aware of. The shooting was not considered a random act of violence, but rather a targeted event.
In the days following the shooting, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office announced the arrest of a suspect. Marcus Feliz, a 25-year-old resident of Newark, was taken into custody and faced charges of murder, felony murder, and robbery. The investigation continued, and nearly a year later, a second suspect was apprehended. Fraynned Ramirez, 26, from Hartford, Connecticut, was located and arrested by U.S. Marshals in the Dominican Republic in February 2017. He faced a similar array of charges, including murder, felony murder, robbery, and weapons offenses. Neither of the accused men had any connection to Rutgers University.
