Nepali Student Murdered in Store Robbery
Last Updated:October 03, 2008

HOUSTON (Houston Chronicle): Missouri City was in mourning Wednesday for a convenience store clerk who dreamed of being a biomedical engineer, but who had already touched many lives with his generous nature and friendly charm.

Quail Valley-area customers streamed Wednesday into the 1st Food Stop store at 2563 Cartwright, the first day the store reopened after the weekend robbery-murder of popular clerk Ashok Bhattarai, 21. Each visitor had a story to tell about the handsome young community college student from Nepal with the bright smile and easy manner.

Outside, a growing memorial of teddy bears, flowers, candles, cards and other items was testament to Ashok’s many admirers. A spontaneous gathering of several hundred mourners met in the parking lot outside the store Tuesday night.
Dinker Amatya, Vice President of the Nepali Association of Houston, said the community has made arrangements to return Ashok’s body back to the family in Katmandu.

Store owner Moiz “Mike” Maknojia is collecting donations for a fund to pay for shipping Bhattarai’s body home to Nepal. Barnes said she handed out 600 fliers about the fund Tuesday night.

A memorial service is planned for 6 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot at 1st Food Stop. City Council members and representatives of the Missouri City Police Department will attend.

“I’m sure his mother is wondering, ‘What kind of place is this?’ ” said Barnes, who is helping organize the memorial service. “We want her to know that Missouri City is a good city. We value life and we valued him. He will go home with our love.”

Police, who have released a video of the shooting, say the killer opened fire as soon as he walked into the store just after 10 p.m. Sunday. The store safe was open and the killer took $5,000, said detective R. Terry.

Ashok’s body was found by a customer; a co-worker stocking merchandise in the back was unaware of what had happened, police said.

Standing outside the store Wednesday morning, Rangon Bhattarai seemed as overwhelmed by the public outpouring for his cousin Ashok as the crime itself.

“It’s moving,” he said of the First Stop memorial, and by the expressions of sadness he is hearing this week. “You can just see volumes about what the people thought of him and what kind of person he was.”

To the cousin fell the sad duty earlier this week of calling Ashok’s family in the southern Nepalese town of Parasi.
“They are shocked, but they are holding up,” Rangon said. “His parents want his body back home.”

Rangon said he and Ashok arrived in the United States in January 2007. Ashok was a student at Houston Community College, with plans to transfer to a university and study biomedical engineering. He has a mother, father, younger brother and older sister in Nepal.

More than anger over a neighborhood crime, residents who spoke Wednesday were saddened by the loss of a young man whose modest position in life had not stopped him from making a strong impression.

“He was a beautiful guy. He could have been an Indian movie star,” said Carolyn Carroll. “He struck me as an unusually bright guy.”

“He was a good kid and he didn’t deserve to die like this,” said Barnes, who reports shock and dismay from all segments of the Missouri City community. “I had grown men out here crying in their cars. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian.”