FORT PIERCE — After hugging friends and family as a panel was removed from the front door, Neha Patel nervously walked into A & M Discount Beverages at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning and took her place behind the counter, the same place where her husband, Parag C. Patel, was killed during a Sept. 4 armed robbery.

But the counter in the reopened store now is topped with thick, bullet-proof glass, one of the safety measures the Patel family installed at the suggestion of Fort Pierce police.

“I’m a little nervous,” Neha Patel said from behind the glass. “But I feel safe. There, for a while, I didn’t think I was going to make it; but I got so much support from my friends and family and customers that I decided to reopen the store.”
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Shot of surveillance video of the male suspect.

Shot of surveillance video of the female suspect.

A man and woman walked into the Shell gas station at 837 N.W. U.S. 1 at about 3:30 p.m. on Saturday to commit the burglary, police spokesman Sgt. Marty Jacobson said.

Video surveillance shows the woman slip into the back of the store, police said. She then breaks into an office and makes off with cash, police said. (more…)