Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Neighbor calls shooting suspect a ‘drunken mess’
Man accused of shooting immigrants in possible hate crime.
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 neighbor said Saturday.
Andy Berthelsen said his neighbor Adam Purinton, who is charged with murder and attempted murder in Wednesday night’s attack, was 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 mid-morning. But in the 15 years he’s lived across the street from Purinton in Olathe, Berthelsen said he’d never heard him make a racist remark or talk politics.
“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. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
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 AP to a home listing believed to be hers got a busy signal.
According to witnesses to the attack 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 he opened fire.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, an engineer at GPS devicemaker Garmin, was killed. His friend and colleague, Alok Madasani, 32, and a man who tried to intervene, Ian Grillot, 24, were wounded. Madasani was released from the hospital Thursday. Grillot remains hospitalized.
Grillot said in a video posted on YouTube that some people have called him a hero.
“No, it’s not like that,” he said. “I was just doing what anyone should have done for another human being.”
Grillot said he had initially ducked under a table. He said he thought he heard nine shots and expected the shooter’s magazine to be empty.
“I guess I miscounted, with everything going on,” he said.
Authorities 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 attempts to ban certain travelers, build a wall along the Mexico border and put “America first.”
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.
“We didn’t react,” Madasani said. “People do stupid things all the time. This guy took it to the next level.”
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.