Vijayawada: Forty-two-year old Paruchuri Balagopal, an NRI from Krishna district, was gunned down by an unidentified assailant during a robbery attempt at a gas filling station at Myrtle Beach town of South Carolina in the United States, sources from his family said here on Saturday. Balagopal, an engineering graduate, is a native of Chitturpu village of Ghantasala mandal in Krishna district. He left for the United States in 2001 and set up a gas filling station in South Carolina. He is survived by wife and two children. According to the information, an unidentified black youth reportedly came to the filling station around 9pm (US time) on Friday and threatened Balagopal with a fire arm.

Balagopal reportedly gave him some money, which the assailant accepted. However, when Balagopal went inside his office room and made an attempt to down the shutter, the assailant fired at him. He died on the spot. The offender left the place after emptying the cash chest at the store. Balagopal's father Bala Nageswara Rao is a retired engineer in AP Irrigation department. Rao lives at Poranki near Vijayawada with his wife Krishnakumari. However, the couple went to Arunachal Pradesh last week to stay with their daughter Sudha's family. "Our relatives in Dallas have informed us about Balagopal being killed. We urged the government to assist our people in getting the body back home early," said B Gopi, a relative of Balagopal. AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu asked the government special representative in Delhi, Kambhampati Rammohan Rao to extend all possible assistance to the victim's family. Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who knew the family of the victim for several years, reportedly spoke to the Indian embassy authorities in US and requested them to help the family of the deceased.