Neighbor: Kan. bar attack suspect a ‘drunken mess’
OLATHE, Kan. — A Kansas man accused of shooting two Indian immigrants and a third man at a bar, in what some believe was a hate crime, was always a drinker but became a “drunken mess” after his father died about 18 months ago, a longtime neighbor said Saturday.
Andy Berthelsen said his neighbor Adam Purinton, who is charged with murder and attempted murder in Wednesday night’s attack, was very close to his father, who died of pancreatic cancer.
He said in the past year, Purinton bounced from one menial job to the next and was sometimes drunk by midmorning.
“This is someone who’s gone downhill very quickly,” Berthelsen said Saturday. “He was a drunken mess.”
Purinton, 51, was arrested hours after the attack at a restaurant and bar about 70 miles from Olathe in Clinton, Mo. He didn’t have a lawyer as of Saturday, according to court records. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
According to witnesses at Austins Bar and Grill, which is about a mile from Purinton’s home, Purinton yelled “get out of my coun- try” at the two Indian men before he opened fire.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a 32-year-old engineer at GPS device-maker Garmin, was killed. His friend and colleague, 32-year-old Alok Madasani, and a man who tried to intervene, 24-year-old Ian Grillot, were wounded. Madasani was released from the hospital Thursday. Grillot remains hospitalized.
Authorities on Friday declined to discuss a possible motive or to say if they were investigating it as a possible hate crime. But Madasani’s father in India described it as such, and the incident has stoked fears about the treatment of immigrants.