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Edited by tongkatwaran75 at 25-2-2017 05:52 AM
February 25, 2017
‘Get out of my country,’
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 of Grandview, Kan., 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 video obtained by the Kansas City Star, Grillot spoke from the hospital about why he stepped in: “It wasn’t right, and I didn’t want the gentleman to potentially go after somebody else,” Grillot said.
Just after midnight, 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.
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.
India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj tweeted about the Olathe shooting numerous times Thursday, saying she was “shocked” and that two Indian embassy officials have “rushed to Kansas.” She added that Indian officials would make all arrangements to transport the mortal remains of Kuchibhotla to Hyderabad, India.- The Washington Post
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Post time 25-2-2017 05:50 AM
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