No bail for man accused in father slay
A Philadelphia man wanted for allegedly killing his father was ordered held without bail Wednesday at Cambridge District Court, a day after causing a lockdown at Harvard University during a multiagency manhunt.
Sohan Panjrolia, 31, was ordered to be held without bail until Aug. 21, while awaiting extradition from Philadelphia police. His attorney at court, Leonard Milligan, said he will likely be held at the Middlesex House of Correction and Jail in Billerica.
Prosecutors said that on Aug. 3 around 9:30 p.m., Panjrolia and his father were in their home when he allegedly shot his father, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police caught Panjrolia around 12:45 p.m. Tuesday after searching for him in Harvard Square based on a tip that he’d be in the area.
The manhunt involved the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section, the Cambridge police, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in Boston and Philadelphia, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, MBTA Transit Police and Harvard University Police.
Panjrolia was arrested at a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop around the corner from The Garage.
Pennsylvania police say Panjrolia fatally shot his father, 60-year-old Mahendra Panjrolia, with an assault rifle on Saturday.
Police said the suspect is schizophrenic.
Tuesday’s incident was not the first time Panjrolia had been in Cambridge. He graduated from the Harvard Extension School in 2013.
The lockdown caused a significant level of concern around Harvard Square on Tuesday because of the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Fergal Burke, a contractor at Harvard, was in a student lounge Tuesday across the street from The Garage, where Panjrolia had parked his car, when he got a phone alert about the lockdown and became alarmed that there might be “a man outside with a gun.” Police were “everywhere,” he told the Herald, dressed in “full tactical gear.”
“With everything going on this week, you know, it makes you nervous,” Burke said. “I was thinking about what happened this week in Texas and all the other places and so, a bit crazy to see it in your own backyard.”
Local businesses, including an IHOP next to The Garage also went into lockdown.
“It was scary, especially because of everything that’s been going on and the shootings all around,” IHOP worker Sara Geer said.