Police: West Melbourne store owner chased down, intentionally hit teen after break-in

Top story tonight, this store owner coughed and taken to jail after police say he ran over a 14-year-old boy and left him for dead in a ditch. And tonight, that boy is fighting for his life. Thanks for joining us. I'm Luann Sorrell. I'm Jack Royer. Police say the owner got mad that the boy broke into his store, so he chased him down with his car and ran him over. Bailey Bockover, live now in West Melbourne. Bailey, neighbors in that community are pretty shocked. Jack, they are. And police say it started when the store owner here at the corner store received an alert on his phone for an attempted break in a shattered front glass door early this morning. Home security cameras capture the moments before police say a 14-year-old boy was run down and left in a ditch around 4.30 this morning. That boy is now in the hospital fighting for his life in critical condition. The possibilities of you know severity of injuries could have been different because if he got on the phone and called emergency services right then and there, you know, would have things ended up differently. This all started when officers responded to an attempted break-in at the corner store. Investigators say the 32-year-old store owner, Kevin Patel, told them someone tried to break in and left on an e-bike. What police say Patel didn't tell them was that he chased that 14-year-old boy half a mile down the road, plowed into him at 30 miles an hour, made a U-turn and drove away. When we were putting two and two together, in addition to damage on the store owner's vehicle, it started to click. Officers searched for nearly an hour before finally finding the severely injured teen off Olive and Coconut Grove Avenues in a neighborhood where families say they least expect it. When we moved in about four years ago, right before my son was born, the people who we were moving in around all our neighbors were saying that this is such a you know sleepy neighborhood. that nothing goes down, so it's a really great place to raise your kids. It wasn't until detectives directly confronted Patel about the fresh front-end damage to his car that they say his story completely unraveled. Detectives blatantly said, you're not telling us the truth, and so we need to know exactly what happened, and that is when the truth began to come out. Patel is being held at the Brevard County Jail with no bond on charges of aggravated battery and hit and run. Live in West Melbourne, Bailey Brock over at Fox 35 News.