Gujarati woman shot dead in South Carolina, 21-year-old arrested after hours-long standoff

A suspect has been arrested and charged in the killing of a Gujarati woman in USA’s South Carolina.

Published on: Sep 21, 2025, 08:42:20 IST

By Sanya Jain

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A suspect has been arrested and charged in the killing of a Gujarati woman in USA’s South Carolina. Zaedan Mack Hill, 21, was arrested in connection with two shooting incidents, including one that led to the death of Kiran Patel on September 16.

Zaedan Mack Hill, 21, was arrested for two shootings in South Carolina (Representational image)

What did Zaedan Mack Hill do?

On September 16, police found Charles Nathan Crosby unresponsive in a yard on South Mountain Street, Union County, South Carolina. According to a Fox News report, the same evening, Kiran Patel, 49, was shot in the parking lot of DD’s Food Mart. She later succumbed to her injuries.

The shooting of Kiran Patel

Patel, an Indian-origin woman, was shot by Zaedan Mack Hill on Tuesday.

According to a GoFundMe page, the incident took place at 10:30 pm on September 16, when Kiran Patel was counting cash at the register of the gas station-cum-convenience store she managed in Union County.

Hill apparently approached her and “climbed onto the cash register”. He then shot Patel before she could hand him the cash.

“During the firing, Kiran Patel threw something like a plastic bottle at the robber and ran away, and the robber also ran after her,” the account posted on GoFundMe said. “The robber continued to fire at Kiran Patel, who ran towards the parking lot to save her life, and during this time, she was hit by a bullet and fell down after going barely twenty feet away.”

The robber – later identified as Hill – ran from the spot but later returned to fire another shot at Patel, who was lying unconscious on the ground.

Arresting the suspect

On Thursday, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, SWAT and Union Public Safety reached a residence in South Church Street with a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Hill. There, a stand-off ensued between Hill and the law enforcement agencies.

The stand-off lasted several hours. However, SWAT and other officers managed to get Hill out of the house eventually. He was booked into the Union County jail and has been charged with murder.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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