Indian techie shot dead in Kansas
25 Feb 2017 12:41 AM IST
An Indian engineer was killed and two others were injured after an American navy veteran yelling "terrorist" and "get out of my country" opened fire on them in a crowded bar in Kansas City in an apparent racially motivated hate crime, police said on Friday.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla (32), working at GPS-maker Garmin headquarters in Olathe, died of bullet injuries in hospital while his Indian colleague Alok Madasani was critically injured when the 51-year-old shooter started yelling hurling racial slurs following an altercation on Wednesday night.
A third person, an American man identified as Ian Grillot, 24, who tried to intervene also received injuries in the firing in Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe.
The shooter, Adam Purinton, reportedly got into an argument with the victims in the terms of racism and shouted "get out of my country", "terrorist" before shooting them.
Purinton reportedly provoked them into an argument asking their presence and work in his country, and how they are better than him.
According to police, Purinton left the bar after the argument and then returned with a gun and shot the three men while patrons were watching the University of Kansas-TCU basketball game on television in the bar.
The shooter was arrested on Thursday morning, five hours after the incident and charged with murder and attempted murder.
Authorities declined at a news conference to say whether the shooting was a hate crime although local police said they were working with the FBI to investigate the case.
"It was a tragic and senseless act of violence," Olathe Police Chief Steven Menke told reporters.
The FBI has joined local police authorities in the investigation. "The FBI is investigating to determine if the shooting of Kuchibhotla, was a bias-motivated hate crime in violation of the victims' civil rights," Eric Jackson, special agent in charge of the FBI' s Kansas City office said.
According to Garmin, Kuchibhotla and Madasani worked in the company's aviation systems.
A 2014 post on LinkedIn said Madasani, 32, was an aviation programme coordinator manager at Garmin. He studied at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and at Vasavi College of Engineering in Hyderabad.
The shooter, a navy veteran with inactive pilot license and air traffic controller certificate, told a bartender in Clinton, Missouri, where he was hiding after the shooting that he killed two Middle Eastern persons, local media reported.
He has been charged with premeditated first-degree murder and his bond has been set at $ 2 million. According to Kansas City Star, the shooter worked as an air traffic controller in Olathe. He also worked at the Federal Aviation Administration but left FAA in 2000.
Friends of Kuchibhotla have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for sending his remains to India.
"Srini was the kindest person you would meet, full of love, care and compassion for everyone. He never uttered a word of hatred, a simple gossip, or a careless comment. He was brilliant, well mannered and simply an outstanding human being," the fundraising page said.
24- year-old US man takes bullet trying to thwart killer
A 24-year-old American who is being hailed as a hero for trying to stop a shooter who killed an Indian in Kansas City, on Friday said it was "actually the right thing to do".
Ian Grillot hid behind a table when the 51-year-old gunman, Adam Purinton, started shooting hurling racial slurs following an altercation at Austins Bar and Grill killing an Indian techie and critically injuring other.
He counted the gunshots and when he thought the shooter was out of bullets, he jumped up to stop him but Purinton still had one round left, which he used it to shoot him and the bullet went through Grillot hand and into his chest.
"I guess I miscounted," Grillot said in an interview from his hospital room, in a video released by the University of Kansas Health System.
"I got up and proceeded to chase him down, try to subdue him...I got behind him and he turned around and fired a round at me," he said.
"I was doing what I should have done for another human being. It's not about where he (victim) was from or his ethnicity. We're all humans, so I just did what was right to do and I didn't want the gentleman to potentially go after somebody else," Grillot said.
Grillot said he learned Alok Madasani, another Indian's, wife is five months pregnant and that he considers the engineer his new best friend, the Kansas City Star report said.
"One of the gentlemen that survived he came in here today and it was the greatest thing I can't even describe it coming to find his five months pregnant wife. Something was guiding me to do what I did, somebody was watching over me I'm just very grateful that one of the gentlemen is fine and alive.
It's terrible what happened to his friend. But I think he was watching over us last night," Grillot said.
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