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‘I want street justice’: Parent banned from Florida elementary school faces new charges

<i>WPTV via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Whispering Pines Elementary School is located west of Boca Raton.
WPTV via CNN Newsource
Whispering Pines Elementary School is located west of Boca Raton.

By Scott Sutton, Dave Bohman

Click here for updates on this story

    PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida (WPTV) — A parent who was banned from a Palm Beach County school last week after deputies said he made threats to school staff and made antisemitic remarks is facing new charges.

WPTV reported that a no-trespass order was issued by school police last month for 41-year-old Chirag Patel. Parents at Whispering Pines Elementary School west of Boca Raton were told he was banned from campus on Aug. 26.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed Friday, a Palm Beach County detective responded to a home on Ruffian Way west of Boca Raton on Aug. 29. When the detective arrived at the scene, the affidavit said the investigator spotted Patel peering through multiple windows of the residence and attempting to record inside.

The residence was occupied by a woman at the time who was fearful of Patel’s actions, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report.

‘That’s terrorism:’ Parents desperate after man banned from school for threats When authorities approached him to take him into custody, the affidavit said Patel began to spontaneously utter that he knew the residence was a “pedophile ring.”

The detective said that Patel continued to insinuate that he didn’t want pedophiles in prison.

“I want street justice. Like we do in India. We have …. blood everywhere, dragging them. Lynching, public lynching,” the affidavit said.

Speaking to the detective, the report said Patel also stated, “If you’re one of them, then you too.”

The report said Patel also began to scream expletives, making insults toward the detective and becoming “extremely agitated and aggressive.”

Patel is accused of also making threatening statements to harm the detective and his family, including continuously repeating the detective’s name about 35 times.

“He appeared to become obsessive about me and make remarks that he was coming for me and that I was now his ‘target,'” the detective stated in the affidavit.

During the investigation, the report said that Patel remarked that law enforcement thought he was targeting the house because someone was “beating him up.” However, detectives found no evidence to support those claims and they found there was no link between Patel and the woman’s residence where they said he was peering inside.

The investigators said the suspect “exhibited severe mood swings” was “emotionally unstable” and “verbally aggressive.”

Also, the affidavit said Patel talked about “doing his own investigation” on the detective and spoke about diplomatic immunity and how “this case” is now a “diplomatic issue.”

Whispering Pines Elementary School is located west of Boca Raton.

The suspect went on to say that he was going to hire diplomats because they can kill people and also expressed his “rage and anger towards white people, Jewish people and … (said) that they will get their judgment,” according to the arrest report.

Patel faces charges of threats to harm the Palm Beach County sheriff’s detective, which is a third-degree felony. He also faces charges of burglary of an occupied dwelling and voyeurism.

He is being held at the Palm Beach County jail without bond.

WPTV looked into a risk protection order filed against Patel after his arrest last week.

The report quoted Patel’s father claiming in 2021 that “Chirag attacked him and threw a lamp at him” and “suffers from PTSD.”

The report quoted an ex-girlfriend as saying Patel “would hit her and choke her when they were together.”

A retired social worker, who lives a few blocks away from Whispering Pines Elementary School, spoke to WPTV on Friday about the case.

“We have to find a way to keep him from hurting somebody,” the social worker, who did not want to use their name, said.

Parents who were picking up their children at Whispering Pines on Friday wonder if the potential threat is over.

“Every morning I’m worried about that,” said a concerned parent who did not want to be identified. “I’m very happy he’s behind bars. I hope he stays like that.”

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