911 call: Suspect said he killed 2 ‘Iranian people’
OLATHE, Kan. — A bartender at the restaurant where a man was arrested last week for allegedly shooting two Indian men at a bar told a 911 dispatcher that the suspect admitted shooting two people, but described them as Iranian.
A recording from Henry County, Mo., 911 reveals that the bartenderwarnedpolice not to approach the building with sirens blaring or the man would “freak out” and “something bad’s going to happen.”
The man, Adam Purinton, 51, of Olathe, made his first appearance in court Monday via video link. He has been charged with firstdegree murder and firstdegree attempted murder.
According to witnesses, Purinton yelled “get out of my country” at two 32-yearold Indian men, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, before he opened fire at Austin’s Bar and Grill in the Kansas City suburb onWednesday evening.
Kuchibhotla was killed and Madasani injured. The two had come to the U.S. fromIndia to study, andthey worked as engineers at GPS maker Garmin. A third patron, Ian Grillot, 24, was wounded when he tried to intervene.
After the shooting, Purinton, who is white, drove 70 miles east to an Applebee’s restaurant in Clinton, Mo., where he made the shocking admission to the bartender.
In the 911 call, the bartender told the dispatcher a man had come into the bar and said he’d done something “really bad” and was on the run fromthe police.
“He asked if he could stay with me and my husband, and he wouldn’t tell me what he did. I kept asking him, and he said that he would tell me if I agreed to let him stay with me,” the bartender said. “Well, I finally got him to tell me and hesaid, like, thatheshotand killed two Iranian people in Olathe.”
Authorities have declined to discuss a possible motive for the attack or to sayif they were investigating it as a hate crime.
But the incident has raised concern about the treatment of immigrants, who feel targeted by President DonaldTrump’spromises to ban certain travelers, build awall along theMexico border and put “America first.”
During Monday’s hearing, Johnson County District Judge Charles Droege appointed public defender Michael McCulloch to represent Purinton. McCulloch declined to comment on the case.
Purinton is jailed on $2 million bond, and his next court appearance is set for March. 9.
Andy Berthelsen, a neighbor of Purinton’s for the past 15 years, said Purinton had been in rapid decline since the death of his father about 18 months ago. The two had been exceptionally close, Berthelsen said.
Purintonwas said to have drunk heavily after his father’s death and to have bounced from one menial job to the next. Berthelsen said he’d 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 fromPurinton’s deterioration.
“This is someone who’s gone down hill very quickly,” Berthelsen said.
The University of Kansas Health System released a video Sunday of an interview with Grillot, of Grandview, Mo., whois recovering after a bullet went through his right hand and into his chest.
Grillot said he had to do something because there were families and children in the bar when the gunfire erupted. Grillot, said he is grateful that the attack is bringing the community together and that it is “awesome honestly to be able to give people a hope that not everybodyhates everybody.”