Hate Crime: Indian Engineer Shot Dead In US By Navy Veteran Shouting 'Get Out Of My Country'
In what appears to be an act of hate crime, an Indian engineer was killed and two others injured when an American man opened fire on them after allegedly yelling "get out of my country".
Srinivas Kuchibhotla/ Facebook
The victim, 32-year-old Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who worked as an aviation engineer at the Garmin headquarters in Olathe, in US state of Kansas was shot at on Wednesday night. One of the injured has been identified as Alok Madasani was critically injured and is battling for life at a local hospital. The third victim, Ian Grillot, is said to be an American, a colleague of the two Indians who tried to stop the attacker.
The alleged perpetrator, Adam Purinton, was arrested by police on Thursday morning. According to local media reports, Srinivas and Alok were at a bar after work, when the accused started making racist comments at the duo calling the "middle easterners" and is said to have shouted, "get out of my country," before firing the shots.
AP
He fled the scene immediately after the incident and reportedly told the bartender that he had killed two ¡°Middle Eastern¡± men.
Purinton with premeditated first-degree murder and premeditated attempted murder.
Srinivas, originally from Hyderabad had done B.Tech. in electrical and electronics engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. He had a master¡¯s degree from the University of Texas El Paso.
GoFundMe
He is survived by his wife Sunayana Dumala, who works in a technology company in Kansas.
The Indian Embassy has swung into action and two senior officials of the Indian Consulate in Houston have been sent to Kansas to assist the victims' families.
I am shocked at the shooting incident in Kansas in which Srinivas Kuchibhotla has been killed. My heartfelt condolences to bereaved family.
¡ª Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) February 24, 2017
Consul RD Joshi and VC H. Singh rushing to Kansas to assist shooting victim. @SushmaSwaraj @IndianEmbassyUS @NavtejSarna @IndianDiplomacy
¡ª India in Houston (@cgihou) February 23, 2017
The incident comes at a time when there is an increase in attacks and hate crimes against non-whites in the US following the rise of right-wing populism and the highly divisive election of Donald Trump.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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