Gruesome details disclosed in Shore Stop deaths

This article originally reported the case against Wharton in 2018 was not prosecuted. The case was moved from a criminal proceeding to a civil proceeding. The victim in that case was paid damages and the case was then dismissed.

By Linda Cicoira

Gruesome details about the March 20 shooting at the Accomac Shore Stop were disclosed in documents filed in the county’s general district court Thursday and tell of the victims being shot in the head and of the suspect’s face being seen on a surveillance video.

Forty-four-year-old Wharton, of Wharton Road in Accomac, was accused of shooting two workers at the family-owned business. They were 56-year-old Pradipkumar Ratilal Patel, and his 24-year-old daughter, Urmi Pradiphai Patel.

Just after 5:30 a.m., Accomack sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the store on the corner of Courthouse Avenue and the Lankford Highway. The man was found dead. The woman was rushed to a Virginia Beach area hospital and succumbed to her injuries a couple of days later.

Corporal Nick Lewis “observed blood and an apparent injury to the head” of a man later identified as the convenience store manager, the court file stated. The man appeared to have been shot, “just above the eye with no observable sign of life.” Emergency Medical Services was contacted to respond to the scene.

Lewis then found the woman. She was “in the kitchen area leaned up against a wall with a head wound appearing to be a gunshot wound.” Lewis saw the woman was “unconscious but breathing and conducted CPR until EMS got there.”

Investigators soon arrived to process the scene and surveillance footage was reviewed.

The Patels arrived at the store at about 5:20 a.m. and were seen entering the building.

“Shortly after, a black male entered the store,” the record stated. He got out of “a silver … Buick sedan” that was registered to Wharton. The man “wearing a dark colored hooded sweatshirt approached the register, brandished a firearm in his left hand, shot the male employee behind the counter, pursued the female employee to the deli area, and then shot” her.

The shooter then “approached the front exit of the store, lowers his hood, and his face is observed and identified” as the suspect, the court papers stated. Wharton was known “through previous law enforcement encounters.”

The suspect was later found and arrested by the sheriff’s Det. Nicholas Kugler along “Wharton Road in the same silver sedan” with the same license plate as seen on the video. “A holster was located in his left pants pocket.”

Charges have thus far included first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Wharton was also accused of two counts of using a firearm in the felonies and possession of a firearm by a non-violent felon. He is being held without bond in Accomack Jail.

Wharton refused to participate in a hearing before a magistrate and when the magistrate attempted to speak to him after the warrant was served. She “explained that answering would at least show some cooperation.” The magistrate also asked him to confirm his address. “Defendant refused to respond,” she wrote.

Accomack Circuit Court files show Wharton, who also goes by the name George Davis, was convicted of distribution of cocaine in 2008. That was the non-violent felony that was mentioned in the charges.

But violent complaints were also made against Wharton.

On Oct. 11, 2018 when Wharton was living in the Quinby area, the recently deceased Ervin Linwood Bundick of Accomac, told a magistrate about an incident he said he had with Wharton.

“We had a few words at Associated Grain,” Bundick said in a summary filed with the court. “I started to walk away and he hit me back to. He kicked me multiple times in the ribs. As I was getting back up, he pushed me over a steel rail and told me he would kill me. I never put a hand on him. He is 37, and I am 85. Wharton was charged with assault and battery.

The case was handled as an accord and satisfaction by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Fultz, where two parties settle a dispute or debt through an agreement (the accord) and then follow through on that agreement (the satisfaction), which resolves the original obligation. This moved it from a criminal remedy to a civil remedy. The victim was paid damages by the offender and the case was dismissed.

In 2023, Troy M. Taylor, who was in his early 50s, complained about Wharton to a magistrate. He was granted a temporary protective order.

“George Wharton has been harassing me with threatening texts and phone calls and stating he knew where I lived and would come to my house,” Taylor said. “This all started after midnight and for no apparent reason that I can see. Talked to his mother, and she said he has not been right since yesterday and didn’t know what was wrong with him. I also have the text messages to justify these statements.”