Fear in Kansas after shooting
Indian-Americans worry that they may be targets of hate
LOS ANGELES // The shooting death of an Indian engineer and wounding of another in a possible hate crime at a Kansas bar has raised fears among members of the area’s fast-growing Indian-American community.
The gunman, US navy veteran Adam Purinton, 51, has been charged with the murder in Olathe, just outside Kansas City, of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and the attempted murder of Alok Madasani, also 32. Mr Madasani told The New York Times that he and Kuchibhotla, both employees of Kansas- based GPS device- maker Garmin, were on the patio of the bar on Wednesday evening when Mr Purinton asked them what type of visa they had and whether they were in the country illegally. Mr Madasani said he went to get a manager, but when he returned Mr Purinton was already being escorted out.
Mr Purinton later came back with a gun and shot Mr Madasani, Kuchibhotla and Ian Grillot, 24, a bystander who tried to intervene. According to witnesses, Mr Purinton shouted, “get out of my country” before opening fire. He was arrested hours later in Missouri. Mr Madasani has been released from hospital but Mr Grillot, 24, was still undergoing treatment. Some members of the Kansas City area’s Indian- American community said the attack had forced them to think about their safety.
“The main reaction is shock, because this is home,” said Sa- marpita Bajpai, 45, who runs a non-profit Indian dance company.
Ms Bajpai, a resident of the Kansas City area for about 20 years, said she would try to avoid staying out late at night for the first time since she moved there. Some members of US minority groups expressed unease with the political and social climate in the United States.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre said in a report this month that hate groups proliferated last year as Donald Trump’s push for the US presidency energised the radical right. Mr Trump has promised to ban travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries and has been especially vocal about the threat posed by Muslim extremist groups.
The greater Kansas City area is home to about two million people, with an estimated Indian- American population of up to 30,000, said Vijay Ainapurapu, 45, a former president of the India Association of Kansas City. The number of Indian immigrants in the US has risen from about 200,000 in the 1980s to more than two million today, as Indian-born scientists and engineers fuelled the US tech boom.
Ajay Sood, 50, who teaches courses in Indian culture, said he often found that native-born Americans were ignorant of his background.
Mistaking the ethnicity of Indian Americans was a hot topic after the Kansas City Star reported that the accused said he had shot two Middle Eastn men. “Most of the Americans who have never travelled outside the US cannot identify who’s a Pakistani, who’s an Indian, who’s an Afghani and who’s a Sikh,” Mr Sood said.