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Man charged with murder after ‘racially motivated’ shooting in crowded bar Man shouting 'get out of my country' shoots dead Indian engineer 'because he thought he was Middle Eastern'
(35 minutes later)
Prosecutors have charged a 51-year-old man with murder and attempted murder after he allegedly started shooting in a crowded suburban Kansas City bar, killing one man and injuring two others, in an attack that some witnesses said was racially motivated.  ​A Kansas man has been charged with shooting dead an Indian man and wounding another Indian man and an American in a bar, in a suspected hate crime.
Authorities repeatedly 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.  Adam Purinton, 51, was charged in Johnson County, Kansas, with one count of premeditated first degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated first degree murder, Johnson County District Attorney Stephen Howe told a news conference.
A bar worker at Austin's Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas, said that Adam Purinton used “racial slurs” before he started shooting on Wednesday night as patrons were watching the University of Kansas-TCU basketball game on television.  Purinton is accused of shooting and killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and wounding Alok Madasani, also 32, in the Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas, on Wednesday evening, according to a statement from the Olathe Police Department.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, died at an area hospital, police said. Alok Madasani, 32, and Ian Grillot, 24, were taken to hospital and are in a stable condition, they said. The LinkedIn accounts for Mr Kuchibhotla and Mr Madasani say they were engineers working at GPS manufacturer Garmin and had studied in India. At least one bystander told the Kansas City Star that the man shouted "get out of my country" before shooting the Indian men. He is also accused of wounding American Ian Grillot, 24, who was shot when he tried to intervene, the Kansas City Star reported.
Local, county, state and federal law enforcement authorities were all at the news conference where the murder charges were announced.  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 Washington Post in an interview. “He started drinking pretty fast.”
Asked if the presence of federal authorities indicated the shooting could be considered a hate crime, FBI special agent Eric Jackson said it was too early to determine.  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.
“This was a violent crime and we want the best prosecution that relates to this because there are victims of this crime and we want the community to know that ... we're looking to make sure that the individual involved in this is held accountable for his actions”  Two officials from the Indian consulate in Houston were going to Kansas to meet the injured men and police to "ascertain more details of the incident and monitor follow up action," Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a statement.
Bartender Garret Bohnen told the Kansas City Star that Kuchibhotla and Madasani stopped at Austins for a drink once or twice a week.  Witnesses told 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 Post in an interview. “He started drinking pretty fast.”
“From what I understand when he was throwing racial slurs at the two gentlemen (Kuchibhotla and Madasani), Ian (Grillot) stood up for them,” Bohnen said. “We're all proud of him.”  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.
Witnesses also told the Star that Purinton yelled “get out of my country” before he opened fire.  "I am shocked at the shooting incident in Kansas in which Srinivas Kuchibhotla has been killed. My heartfelt condolences to bereaved family," Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj said in a Tweet.
​Grillot said in an interview from his hospital bed that when the shooting broke out, he hid until nine shots had been fired and he thought the suspect's gun magazine was empty.  The US embassy in New Delhi condemned the shooting.
“I got up and proceeded to chase him down, try to subdue him,” Grillot said in a video from the University of Kansas Health System posted on the Star website. “I got behind him and he turned around and fired a round at me.”  "The United States is a nation of immigrants and welcomes people from across the world to visit, work, study, and live," US Charge d'€™Affaires MaryKay Carlson said in a statement.
Grillot said that the bullet went through his hand and into his chest, just missing a major artery.  "US authorities will investigate thoroughly and prosecute the case, though we recognise that justice is small consolation to families in grief."
“It's not about where he (victim) was from or his ethnicity,” Grillot said. “We're all humans, so I just did what was right to do.”  Howe would not elaborate on the details of the incident or the motive for the shooting.
GoFundMe pages were started to help pay expenses for all three of the victims.  "We want to be able to be sure about our facts versus speculation. So we are not prepared at this point to talk about the particular facts of the case because this is still very fresh," Howe said.
Purinton was taken into custody just after midnight on Thursday morning at an Applebee's about 70 miles to the southeast of Olathe in Clinton, Missouri, authorities said.  Kavipriya Muthuramalingam, a friend and former colleague of the shooting victim, has raised more than $250,000 via a crowd-funding website to help his family with funeral and other expenses.
Assistant Clinton Police Chief Sonny Lynch said an Applebee's bartender summoned police to the bar where the man was drinking because he said he'd been involved in a shooting. The unarmed Purinton was taken into custody and interviewed by detectives from Olathe.  "This came as an incredible shock - as he is one of the most gentle, nicest human beings you would meet," Muthuramalingam said. "He was non-confrontational, non-controversial, easy-going, always smiling."
“He mentioned he had been involved in a shooting and we went out there and picked him up,” Lynch said.  The killing led news bulletins in India and drew strong reactions on social media, amid growing concerns that US President Donald Trump's "America First" rhetoric on immigration and jobs has fuelled a climate of intolerance.
The bar where the shooting took place was closed Thursday, with a sign in the door that said it would remain closed indefinitely.  "Don't be shocked! Be angry! Trump is spreading hate. This is a hate crime! RIP #SrinivasKuchibhotla," Siddharth, a well known South Indian actor, tweeted to his 2.6 million followers.
AP Trump's election was welcomed at first by many in India who interpreted his calls to restrict immigration by Muslims as signalling support towards Hindu-majority India, which for decades has been at odds with Pakistan, its largely Muslim neighbour.
But the Trump administration also has skilled Indian workers like Kuchibhotla in mind as it considers curbing the H-1B visa program, worrying both India's $150 billion IT services industry and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Kuchibhotla's Facebook page, where he called himself "Srinu", said he joined Garmin in 2014 from Rockwell Collins. He took a master's in electronics from the University of Texas in El Paso from 2005-07, according to LinkedIn. He was married but had no children.
The FBI was investigating whether the incident was a hate crime.
"We are looking at whether the crime was committed via bias motivation. We are really at the preliminary stage at looking at every aspect," said Eric Jackson, special agent in charge of the FBI's Kansas City Field Office, during the news conference.
The US attorney office in Kansas and the US Department of Justice will also evaluate the case as more evidence is gathered, Tom Beall, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas said, the Kansas City Star reported.
The United States saw a wave of hate crimes, including a spike in anti-immigrant incidents, during the first month after Trump's election in November, the Southern Poverty Law Centre reported.
Kuchibhotla and Madasani were engineers who worked at Garmin as members of the Aviation Systems Engineering team, the Star reported.
"We're saddened that two Garmin associates were involved in last night'€™s incident, and we express our condolences to the family and friends of our co-workers involved," the company said in a statement, according to the newspaper.
The suspect fled from the bar on foot and was apprehended five hours later at an Applebee’s in Clinton, Missouri, where he reportedly told an employee that he needed a place to hide out because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men, the Star reported.
Purinton, who was not armed, was arrested without incident, the newspaper reported.
Purinton, a Navy veteran, was being held on a $2 million bond in the Henry County Jail, where he waived his right to fight extradition to Johnson County, the paper reported.
Additional reporting by agencies