India Post News Service
KANSAS: Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said here that Adams Purinton, 51, is being charged with one count of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated murder. Purinton is being held on $2 million bond; he’s expected to be extradited from Henry County, Mo., to face charges in Kansas.
The shooting that occurred at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe, Kansas, left one man dead and two others wounded. Two of the victims are originally from India – Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasan. The assailant was allegedly heard yelling “get out of my country” just before opening fire.
Srinivas 32, died February 23.Hewas having an after-work beer with his friend Alok. Alok Madasani, 32, and bar patron Ian Grillot, 24, suffered injuries, authorities said.Hours later, police arrested Adam W. Purinton about 70 miles away – in Clinton, Missouri.
The FBI is jointly investigating the triple shooting with local authorities, an FBI representative told NPR. The agency is working to determine whether the victims’ civil rights were violated as part of the crime.
The Kansas City Star in its report said: “At least one witness reportedly heard the man yell ‘get out of my country’ shortly before shooting Kuchibhotla and Madasani. The man fled on foot. A manhunt ensued. Five hours later, Purinton reportedly told a bartender at a bar in an Applebee’s in Clinton, Mo., that he needed a place to hide out because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men.”
Sunayana Dumala, widow of Srinivas deemed this as hate crime and pitched Washington to do something about hate crimes in general.”I need an answer; I need an answer from the government. I need an answer for everyone out there,” she said. “Not just for my husband … but for everyone, all those people of any race.”
She said that she was constantly worried about violence against foreigners in the United States, “I told him many a times, ‘Should we think about going back? Â And his response usually was ‘No.’
The White House has sought to dispel concerns that the fatal shooting of an Indian engineer and the wounding of two other men was inspired by President Donald Trump‘s rhetoric.
Sean Spicer, the White House spokesperson, said any loss of life is tragic but it would be absurd to link the action to Trump’s stance on immigrants.Spicer said it was too early to guess the motive for the incident, in which a man opened fire in a crowded bar in an apparently racially motivated attack.
The Olathe community mourned Kuchibhotla’s death during a candlelight vigil on Feb 24 night at a church just steps away from where he was gunned down.The Indian Association of Kansas City held a vigil of its own on Feb 26.”It takes a long time for us to get out of this shock that the community has been in, because nothing like this has happened here before,” Sridhar Harohalli, the group’s president, said.
“As a community we are shocked, we are saddened, we are devastated,” Olathe Mayor Michael Copeland said.Laura Gilman of Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City was on hand to offer comfort. “Unfortunately we know what it’s like to be victims of a hate crime, so we want the Olathe community to know, the minority community to know, that we are with them’
The shooting prompted an outpouring of support on Go Fund Me pages set up for the victims. A friend who set up a page for the family of Kuchibhotla says he died after “an intoxicated man hurling racial slurs opened fire inside a packed Kansas bar.”
Kuchibhotla’s 70-year-old father, K Madhusudhana Sastry, is a retired scientist from Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited and he was in deep grief while reacting that the shooting was a big blow to all family members.
Madhusudan has three sons and the remaining two are working in India.
Go Fund MeÂ
Chicago Bureau adds: Sunil Shah, the founder president of FIA Schaumburg, said that the entire Indian community here is shocked at the shooting death of Indian techy Sirinivas Kuchibhotla and he has convened the grief of FIA to his widow Sunayana.  He said an appeal is on its way urging the community to contribute to the Go Fund Me set up for the victims family members
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