11 September revenge killer guilty

There were several revenge attacks in the wake of 11 September

A jury in the United States has convicted a man who shot dead an Indian immigrant in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks.

Mark Stroman told police that he killed Vasudev Patel, the owner of a petrol station in Texas, last October because he wanted vengeance for the attacks on New York and Washington.

We're at war. I did what I had to do. I did it to retaliate against those who retaliated against us

Mark Stroman

Stroman has also been charged with another murder and the shooting of a third man - both of them Pakistani.

Stroman faces the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Patel, aged 49, died on 4 October after being gunned down in the gas station he owned in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, where Stroman lived.

Muslims targeted

Stroman said he had singled him out because he looked like someone of Muslim descent.

"I'm not a serial killer. We're at war. I did what I had to do. I did it to retaliate against those who retaliated against us," Stroman said in a television interview in February.

"He is so full of hate. He said he has skin allergies against people like us. I'm happy he was found guilty so quickly by the jury." Patel's brother-in-law Mukesh Patel said after the conviction.

Arab-Americans were horrified by the suicide attacks

The Dallas jury deliberated for less than an hour on Tuesday before convicting Stroman.

Stroman's lawyers did not dispute that he had killed Patel, but they said he did not enter the petrol station with the intention of killing the owner.

But prosecutors pointed to a surveillance tape of the murder, which they said showed Stroman was a cold-blooded killer.

Stroman has been charged with killing a Dallas-area convenience store clerk, Waquar Hassan, on 15 September. He is also suspected of shooting another store clerk, Rais Uddin, who was injured during a robbery attempt.

Both men were Pakistani.