Cops: Arrest in May 2021 killing of Lindenhurst vape shop owner
Lindenhurst vape shop owner Kinshuk Patel was killed in his store in May 2021. Suffolk police arrested a homeless man Wednesday and charged him with murder in connection with Patel's death, authorities said. Credit: Patel Family
A homeless man was arrested Wednesday and charged in connection with the killing last year of a vape shop owner in his Lindenhurst store, according to the Suffolk police department.
Yoel Atzmon, 44, faces a second-degree murder charge in the May 19, 2021 death of Kinshuk “Mickey” Patel, 33, who owned Dapper Smoke Shop on 40th Street, near Sunrise Highway, the department said in a news release.
Patel was killed with a "heavy object," the press office said in an email. The release did not say why Atzmon, who is to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip, is believed to have been involved, or what led to a break in the case after more than a year.
The press office email did not elaborate, saying: "We are not going to be more specific about what the object was and the SCPD does not comment on motive."
Atzmon was to be held overnight at the Third Precinct, police said.
On the night Patel died, his wife couldn’t reach him, so she went to the vape shop, where he was found injured about 9:40 p.m.
"She found the car, Mickey wasn’t there, the store was open, we didn’t see anybody inside, she was scared to get in, finally cops came, we went inside and found him laying around," Patel’s uncle, Prateek Patel, told Newsday after the killing.
Kinshuk Patel was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, the police department said at the time.
The family said Patel had recently bought a home for his wife and two children.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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