Finally, White House says Kansas killing ‘disturbing’
muted response Shooting still not classified as hate crime, justice dept probe on
The White House has said reports on the killing of Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was “disturbing”, breaking its silence on the Kansas shootings amid mounting pressure to condemn what many believe is the latest in a series of hate crime across the US.
“I don’t want to get ahead of the law enforcement, but I was asked the other day about the story in Kansas — the shooting in Kansas,” Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer said in his opening remarks at the daily briefing on Monday.
“While the story is evolving, early reports out of Kansas are equally disturbing,” he said after condemning strongly, on the President’s behalf, continued reports of vandalism at Jewish community centres, synagogues and cemeteries.
The US justice department is investigating the killing of Kuchibhotla, an Indian aviation engineer working with Garmin in Olathe, Kansas and the shooting of his friend Alok Madasani and Ian Grillot, an American who tried to help them, as a possible hate crime.
His earlier perfunctory comment that “all killings are tragic” was condemned by many in the US and pressure was mounting on the White House to condemn the shootings, which have been attributed to a surge in antipathy towards immigrants, especially those from Muslim-majority Middle-Eastern countries targeted by this administration.
Adam Purinton, a 51-year-old US navy veteran charged with the shootings, had mistaken the Indians for immigrants from Iran, one of the seven Muslimmajority nations whose citizens were temporarily banned from entering the US.
Purinton, who was arraigned in a court with first-degree mur
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