A 51-year-old man faces first-degree murder charges after
shooting three men in an Olathe, Kan., bar Wednesday night, police say,
reportedly telling two of them, local Garmin engineers from India, to "get
out of my country."
One of the Indian men, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, died in the hospital later
from his gunshot wounds.
Authorities would not classify the shooting as a hate crime, but federal law
enforcement officials said Thursday they are investigating with local police to
determine if it was "bias motivated."
Adam W. Purinton, 51, of Olathe, was also charged with two counts of
attempted first-degree murder for shooting two other patrons at Austin's Bar
and Grill: Alok Madasani, 32, of Overland Park, Kan. and 24-year-old Ian
Grillot, who tried to intervene. Madasani
had been released from a hospital Thursday and Grillot continued to recover.
Witnesses told the Kansas City Star and The Washington Post that Purinton was
thought to have been kicked out the bar Wednesday night before the shooting
took place. "He seemed kind of
distraught," Garret Bohnen, a regular at Austin's who was there that night
told The Post in an interview. "He started drinking pretty fast."
He reportedly came back into the bar and hurled racial slurs
at the two Indian men, including comments that suggested he thought they were
of Middle Eastern descent. When he started firing shots, Grillot, a regular at
the bar whom Bohnen called "everyone's friend," intervened.
In a public video released by the University of Kansas Health System, Grillot
spoke from his hospital bed about the night. When he heard shots being fired,
he crouched under a table. Hearing nine shots, Grillot expected the man's
magazine to be empty, but soon realized he must have miscounted.
"I got behind him and he turned around and fired at me," Grillot
said. The bullets went through his right hand and chest, fracturing a vertebrae
and his neck, and barely missing his carotid artery.
"I'm grateful to be alive," he said. "Another half inch and I
could be dead or never walk again."
He spent the night in the hospital praying that the two other men had survived
the shooting, he said. When he saw Madasani enter his hospital room Thursday
morning, "it put the biggest smile on my face," Grillot said. He soon
found out that Madasani's wife is five months pregnant.
"I was just doing what anyone should've done for another human
being," Grillot said, his eyes flooding with tears. "It's not about
where he's from or his ethnicity. We're all humans. I just felt like I did what
was naturally right to do."
Just after midnight Thursday, Purinton, a Navy veteran, IT specialist, and
former pilot and air traffic controller, was taken into custody about 70 miles
away in Clinton, Mo., authorities told the Associated Press.
Assistant Clinton Police Chief Sonny Lynch said an Applebee's bartender called
police because Purinton told him he had been involved in a shooting, according
to the Associated Press. He appeared before a judge in Henry County, Mo., and
waived his right to fight extradition. His bond was set at $2 million, and
authorities said they hope to have him back in custody in Johnson County soon.
He has not filed a plea and no attorney for him could be located.
In a news conference Thursday, officials declined to go into detail regarding
the shooting and could not speak to whether it might be considered a hate
crime. Olathe Police Chief Steven Menke said local and federal law enforcement
"will continue to investigate any and all aspects of this horrific
crime."
Meanwhile, the Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
called Thursday for state and federal hate crime charges to be brought against
Purinton "in order to send a strong message that violence targeting
religious or ethnic minorities will not be tolerated," CAIR-Kansas Board
Chair Moussa Elbayoumy said in a statement. Elbayoumy added that two Kansas men
were sentenced Wednesday for their roles in an unrelated hate attack on three
Somali Muslims in that state.
Both men were Indian nationals, a spokesman for India's Ministry of External
Affairs said. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a series of
tweets that she had contacted the family of the man who was killed, Srinivas
Kuchibhotla, in the southern city of Hyderabad and was making arrangements to
have the remains sent there. "I have spoken to the father and
Mr.K.K.Shastri brother of Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Hyderabad and conveyed my
condolences to the family," she tweeted.
Two diplomats from the Indian consulate in Houston were "rushing" to
Kansas to assist, Swaraj said.
The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi also released a statement condemning the
shooting. Charge d Affaires MaryKay Carlson called it "a tragic and
senseless act," adding that the U.S. is a "nation of immigrants and
welcomes people from across the world to visit, work, study, and live."
Kuchibhotla and Madasani were employees on the Aviation Systems Engineering
team at Garmin Ltd., headquartered in Olathe. Garmin released a statement
saying it was saddened by the shootings and would have grievance counselors
on-site and available for its employees in Kansas on Thursday and Friday.
According to Kuchibhotla's LinkedIn account, he held a master's degree in
electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso
and earned his bachelor's degree at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological
University in India. Madasani's LinkedIn said he studied at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City and at Vasavi College of Engineering in India.
Kavipriya Muthuramalingam, a good friend of Kuchibhotla's, said in an interview
with The Post the two were part of a tight-knit group of friends who all used
to work at the aerospace company Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She
said Kuchibhotla was a kind, level-headed and technically skilled friend who
was always smiling. She called him "one of the best people you've ever met
in your life" and "the perfect example of a decent gentleman."
Muthuramalingam, who now lives in Irvine, Calif., said she and her fellow
Indian friends had not yet begun to discuss any potentially racially-biased
motives of the shooting. She said "it affects us all on different
levels," but for now, they were all "just focusing on the fact that
such a good person was lost."
She started a GoFundMe account to help relieve medical and funeral expenses for
Kuchibhotla's wife Sunayana and their family.
In about eight hours Thursday, the page had raised nearly $205,000.
Maggie Grillot, whose brother was the third bar patron shot after he
intervened, commented on the GoFundMe page, telling Kuchibhotla's family she
was "so very sorry" for their loss.
"My brother wishes he could have done more for your family," she
wrote.
Bohnen, the regular at Austin's who was there that night, and who has worked
there in the past, said Kuchibhotla and Madasani would come in all the time.
Though they kept to themselves, they were always friendly and willing to share
a cigarette or take shots of gin with Bohnen.
Austin's staff gathered at an employee's house Wednesday night to help each
other grapple with the night's events, and on Thursday, employees went into the
bar to help clean up. Owner Brandon Blum wrote on the bar's web page that he
hoped to re-open Austin's by Saturday. Outside the bar, flowers were left at a
makeshift memorial, the Kansas City Star reported.
"We are so sorry that this happened on our premises," Blum wrote.
"We have never experienced any sort of tragedy like this in our 30
years."
From his hospital bed, Grillot said he had been planning on going fishing this
weekend before the shooting occurred. So after recovering, that was the first
thing he looked forward to doing. He also said he hoped to get together with
Madasani, "the gentleman I've now become best friends with," and meet
his son once he is born.
"After last night, we're definitely going to be spending a little bit of
time together," he said. "Don't think it's going to be at the bar,
though. Maybe some grilling in the backyard with a beer or two."
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