In the middle of a crowded bar, Adam Purinton yelled at two Indian men to "get out of my country," witnesses said, then opened fire in an attack that killed one of the men and wounded the other, as well as a third man who tried to help.
Hours later, the 51-year-old former air traffic controller reportedly told a bartender in another town that he needed a place to hide because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men.
In India, the father of one of the wounded men called Wednesday’s attack in the Kansas City suburbs a hate crime, but authorities on Friday declined to discuss a motive as they investigated the shooting. It swiftly stoked fears about the treatment of immigrants, who feel targeted by President Donald Trump’s promises to ban certain travelers, build a wall along the Mexico border and put "America first."
The slain man was identified as Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32. His widow said he came to the U.S. in 2005 to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Texas at El Paso and worked in Iowa for six years before moving to the Kansas City area.
Adam Purinton Henry County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Adam Purinton, of Olathe, Kan., who was arrested on Feb. 23, 2017, in connection with a shooting at a bar in Olathe that left one person dead and wounded two others.
Adam Purinton, of Olathe, Kan., who was arrested on Feb. 23, 2017, in connection with a shooting at a bar in Olathe that left one person dead and wounded two others.
(Henry County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
"He did not deserve a death like this," Sunayana Dumala said Friday at a news conference organized by her husband’s employer, the GPS device-maker Garmin. "I don’t know what to say. We’ve read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening somewhere. I was always concerned, ‘Are we doing the right thing staying in the U.S. or America?’ But he always assured me good things happen in America."
Though she did not mention Trump by name, she directed anger at the U.S. government, asking what officials would do to stop hate crimes. She said she was Hindu.
"Not everyone will be harmful to this country," she said.
Purinton was jailed on murder and attempted murder charges. His first court appearance was scheduled for Monday.
A bartender at Austins Bar and Grill in the suburb of Olathe said Purinton used racial slurs before firing. He was taken into custody about five hours later after speaking with another bartender at an Applebee’s some 70 miles away in Clinton, Missouri.
The Kansas City Star reported Purinton’s comments to the second bartender. The paper did not cite its sources.
The other men who were shot were identified as 32-year-old Alok Madasani, who was released from the hospital Thursday, and 24-year-old Slot Oyunlar? Ian Grillot, who remained hospitalized.
Madasani’s father, Jaganmohan Reddy, said he had spoken with his wounded son over the phone and is worried about his safety.
"I request other parents to think twice before sending their children to the United States," he said.
Alok Madasani Mahesh Kumar A. / AP
A man shows a picture of Alok Madasani, an engineer who was injured in a shooting at a crowded suburban Kansas City bar as Madasani’s father, Jaganmohan Reddy, talks to the media at his residence in Hyderabad, India, on Feb. 24, 2017.
A man shows a picture of Alok Madasani, an engineer who was injured in a shooting at a crowded suburban Kansas City bar as Madasani’s father, Jaganmohan Reddy, talks to the media at his residence in Hyderabad, India, on Feb. 24, 2017.
(Mahesh Kumar A. / AP)
The LinkedIn accounts for Kuchibhotla and Madasani describe them as engineers for Garmin, which has its main campus just a mile from the scene of the shooting. The company is one of the region’s best-known employers.
Local police were working with the FBI. Spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the agency’s role is to help determine if a civil rights violation occurred.
Purinton, who is being held on $2 million bond, was moved Friday from Missouri to Kansas. Because he has not yet appeared in court, he did not have an attorney formally assigned to his case.
Beverly Morris, who has lived next door to Purinton in Olathe for about 20 years, said he never made her feel unsafe.
"He seemed like a good guy," Morris said, but "anybody who knew him knew he had a drinking problem."
Another neighbor, Michael Shimeall, told the Star that Purinton seemed friendly and never showed a temper "or anything like that."
He recalled that Purinton was helpful with neighbors when they had to dig out after snowstorms or pick up a tree blown down by wind. He said Purinton had photos of the ships he served on in the Navy and other Navy items in his home.
Witness a hate crime? Here’s how to intervene. Matt Lindner
Within the first 10 days after Donald Trump’s election as president, 867 reports of hate incidents in the United States were collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center, including 368 such incidents Nov. 9 and 10 combined. Meanwhile, recently released FBI data show there were 5,850 hate crime…
Within the first 10 days after Donald Trump’s election as president, 867 reports of hate incidents in the United States were collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center, including 368 such incidents Nov. 9 and 10 combined. Meanwhile, recently released FBI data show there were 5,850 hate crime…
(Matt Lindner)
FAA records from the 1990s indicate that Purinton was a pilot and was licensed to work in an airport control tower. Agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory says Purinton left the FAA 17 years ago in 2000.
At the time of the attack, bar patrons were watching a college basketball game on television. When Purinton began harassing the two men, Grillot "stood up for them," bartender Garret Bohnen told the Star.
Witnesses also told the newspaper about Purinton’s yelling about leaving the country.
As the gunfire began, Grillot hid under a table until nine shots had been fired. Believing the suspect’s magazine was empty, he chased the gunman in hopes of subduing him.
A bullet went through his right hand and into his chest, just missing a major artery but fracturing a vertebra in Grillot’s neck.
"Another half inch, I could be dead or never walk again," he said Thursday from his hospital bed in a video from the University of Kansas Health System.
He did not describe what led to the shooting, saying only that he felt compelled to intervene to help others.
"I was just doing what anyone should have done for another human being," he said.
The Indian government said its diplomats would monitor the Kansas investigation. Kuchibhotla was from the southern state of Telangana, and his body was to be transported to the capital city of Hyderabad, where his family lives.
Mourners poured into Hyderabad. His parents have another son working in the United States.
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth and Margaret Stafford contributed to this report.
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