Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Neighbor: Suspect ‘drunken mess,’ not political
Man held in shootings at bar asked whether pair were in U.S. legally
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. But in the 15 years he’s lived across the street from Purinton in Olathe, Berthelsen said he’s never heard him make a racist remark or talk politics. He said he doesn’t believe the shooting stemmed from hatred, and that it likely resulted from Purinton’s physical and mental deterioration.
“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, Missouri. He is jailed on murder and attempted murder charges, and he didn’t have a lawyer as of Saturday, according to court records.
Purinton’s mother, Marsha Purinton, told The New York Times that her son “snapped, and this is not his typical self.” The newspaper said she declined to elaborate, and calls by The Associated Press to a home listing believed to be hers got a busy signal.
According to witnesses at Austins Bar and Grill, which is about a mile from Purinton’s home, Purinton yelled “get out of my country” at the two Indian men before opening fire.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a 32-yearold 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 for the attack 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, who feel targeted by President Donald Trump’s promises to ban certain travelers.
The Kansas City Star, without citing its sources, reported that Purinton allegedly told a bartender at the Missouri restaurant where he was arrested that he needed a place to hide because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men.
Madasani, also a Garmin engineer, told The New York Times on Friday that Purinton had been sitting near him and Kuchibhotla on the bar’s patio. Madasani said he asked them what type of visas they were on and whether they were in the U.S. illegally. Both were in the country legally.
Madasani said he went to get a manager, but when he got back to the patio, the man was already being escorted out.
Authorities say Purinton returned a short time later and opened fire.