Jagdishch Patel came to the United States from India to fulfill his dream of making a better life for himself and his family.

        That was shattered a week agowhen he was shot dead during an evening robbery at the RNS Food Store he operated in Pleasant Ridge. Police have no suspects.

NATIONAL WORKPLACE CRIME

• Retail homicides increased by 17 percent from 1999 to 2000 (from 264 to 310).     • Grocery store homicides, which include convenience stores, increased by 42 percent during the same period (from 78 homicides to 111).     • Robbery homicides in the workplace increased 14 percent, from 255 to 291 in 2000.     Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

        The homicide, the 16th in Cincinnati this year, underscores the danger of working in one of the most deadly occupations in America.

        Nearly half of all workplace homicides in 2000 occurred in the retail industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

        The risk was greatest for those who work at night in convenience stores, liquor stores and gasoline stations. And the risk of losing one's life in the retail trade is even greater for foreign-born workers, according to at least one survey.

        “It's something you think about every day,” said Joe Meyer, who owns Mike's Pony Keg at the corner of 7013 Montgomery Road in Silverton.

        “I've been lucky,” said Mr. Meyer, who took over the business 16 years ago. “I haven't had any major problems. But it could happen anywhere.”

        Mr. Patel, 57, of Pleasant Ridge, was shot once in the upper body after he apparently refused to hand over money to the masked robber, Cincinnati police said.

        The robber - described by witnesses as a tall, thin black man, wearing a black, loose-fitting ski mask with roughly cut-out eye holes - escaped with an undisclosed amount of money and is still at large.

        Bhupinden Dhillon is a native of India who operates the AmeriStop Food Mart at 3251 W. Montgomery Road in Loveland. Mr. Patel's murder was most disturbing to him because he believes it could have been prevented.

        “Everybody knows what to expect when you buy a business in that kind of high-crime area,” Mr. Dhillon said.

        “He (Mr. Patel) should have given them what they wanted. There's nothing more important than your life.”

        Foreign-born retail workers may face even higher risks that other retail workers.

        A new study by the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. (NCCI), which analyzed a sampling of workers compensation claims from 1991 through 1994, showed that almost one- third of foreign-born workers killed on the job in 1994 worked in the retail trade.

        That compares to one-eighth of the nation's native-born workers who died on the job that year, according to the NCCI.

        California, which has the largest number of residents born outside the United States, had the largest number of fatal work injuries among foreign-born workers in 1994, according to the study.

        Ohio, with one of the smallest percentages of foreign-born workers in the United States, ranked No. 8.

        “I know it sounds like a stereotype, but the fact is a large number of convenience stores are owned and operated by immigrants,” said Michael Wright, an NCCI spokesman. “It stands to reason then that many of them would become victims of armed robberies and murders.”

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