Slain Rutgers Student Had Troubled, Complicated Life: Friends, Neighbors Say

Shani Patel was always too busy and driven to have a girlfriend. But he was always the one smiling, friends say.

Others, however, saw Patel as someone who brought trouble to a neighborhood where he and other Rutgers students stayed - problems they believe Rutgers never fully grasped.

It was the kind of trouble, including drug-dealing, that his Newark neighbors believe led to his shooting death on Sunday - and the kind of problems he had for years, even in his hometown of Toms River.

Neighbors said they can't understand why Rutgers couldn't get Patel to change his alleged behavior, even if it meant throwing him out of the school.

"Rutgers continues to skirt the issue about that," said one neighbor, Ralph Baker, who said his James Street Commons Neighborhood Association tried - but failed - to get Rutgers to deal with Patel's troubles.

Rutgers University has declined to comment on Patel's issues, and Newark police referred the issue to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura’s Crimestoppers Program, meanwhile, is offering up to $10,000 for information in the fatal Sunday night shooting near the intersection of Central Avenue and Halsey Street, next to the Rutgers-Newark campus.

No one has been charged since Patel was shot Sunday along with a 23-year-old Rutgers alumnus of the university, who survived the attack.

Read more: Manhunt For Suspect In Shooting Death Of Rutgers Student From Toms River

Friends planned to hold an candlelight service at the Seaside Heights beach on Wednesday in memory of Patel, a 21-year-old Economics major at Rutgers-Newark who had big dreams of making it in business.

The event will begin at Spicy Cantina on the boardwalk prior to the ceremony; around 8 p.m., his friends will then move to the beach, one of Patel's favorite hangouts, where they'll pay homage to a man who "lit up a room" wherever he was.

One friend, Alex Bardis, said Patel planned to go into real estate and "flip houses," and help his Toms River family live a better life after emigrating from India.

"He had big goals and he was pursuing them, all for his mother," Bardis said.

Meanwhile, the James Street group, a neighborhood alliance dedicated to preserving the historic neighborhood around Rutgers-Newark, planned to address Patel's shooting death - and his past issues - during its Tuesday night meeting.

Baker and other neighbors said Patel lived a different life in Newark from what his friends knew in Toms River and elsewhere, residing in a James Street house that appeared to targeted, perhaps by drug dealers.

Indeed, a substantial amount of drugs and money were found at the scene of the fatal shooting, and authorities believe the shooting may have occurred during a robbery, according to nj.com.

The neighbors said a similar incident happened in either January or February of 2015, when burglars ransacked the James Street house and left carrying suitcases.

Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Rutgers-Newark, said Rutgers police increased vehicular and foot patrols in the area following the 2015 incident. RUPD officers also have attended meetings of the James Street Commons Neighborhood Association upon request by the association, the most recent of which was Feb. 23.

"We also have kept open and transparent channels of communication with the association and other neighborhood groups," she said in a written statement. "We remain committed to working with all of our neighbors and with our law enforcement partners to keep the area safe."

Patel was not at the house at the time of the incident, friends and neighbors say. Bardis said Patel was traveling at the time and he nothing to do with it.

"A lot of press is dragging his name through the mud and it's wrong," Bardis said. "He's been in the wrong places at the wrong times."

The neighbors presented Patch with correspondence sent to Rutgers expressing their concerns about the incident and Patel's behavior. They asked not to have the correspondence published.

Asked if Rutgers didn't adequately address alleged behavior of Patel and others at the house, Baker said: "That's an understatement."

The neighbors said they, too, read about Patel's troubled past and said they weren't surprised, saying they witnessed similar behavior in the James Street neighborhood.

Patel was sentenced to two years of probation last year after he was indicted on a charge of third-degree possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and fourth-degree possession of marijuana, according to court records.

Bardis, meanwhile, said too much is being written about somebody who always had positive energy, and had a bright future.

"All I can say is he doesn't deserve to be remembered like that," he said.