Grandfather Visiting Alabama From India Stopped by Police While Taking Walk, Left Partly Paralyzed

By Challen Stephens
AL.com
Feb. 11, 2015

Madison police last week roughed up a 57-year-old Indian citizen who was walking on the sidewalk outside his son's home, leaving the older man temporarily paralyzed and hospitalized with fused vertebrae.

"He was just walking on the sidewalk as he does all the time," said his son, Chirag Patel, this morning. "They put him to the ground."

No crime had been committed. Madison Police on Monday issued a statement saying the department had suspended the officer and were investigating the use of force in this case. The police statement wished the man a "speedy recovery."

Chirag Patel, an engineer for one of the many government contractors in Huntsville, said he had just bought a one-way ticket for his father, bringing him from the small Indian town of Pij to his new home in fast-growing suburbs of Madison.

He said his father, Sureshbhai Patel, was to help his wife care for their new baby, a 17-month-old son, so he could pursue his masters degree in electrical engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

"This is a good neighborhood. I didn't expect anything to happen," said Chirag Patel, who recently bought the new house on Hardiman Place Lane.

Madison police issued a statement on Monday saying they received a call early Friday about a man looking in garages among the brick homes just south of the city's new high school.

"The caller, who lives in the neighborhood did not recognize the subject and thought him to be suspicious," reads the statement released by police.

Hank Sherrod, attorney for the family, this morning said the man was not walking on other people's property nor looking in garages.

"This is broad daylight, walking down the street. There is nothing suspicious about Mr. Patel other than he has brown skin," said Sherrod.