Gunman: Get out of my country
Purinton yelled at Indian men and opened fire, say witnesses Son of boxer Muhammad Ali held at Florida airport
Purinton yelled at Indian men and opened fire, say witnesses.
OLATHE ( Kansas): In the middle of a crowded bar, Adam Purinton yelled at two Indian men to “get out of my country”, witnesses said, then opened fire in an attack that killed one of the men and wounded the other, as well as a third man who tried to help.
Hours later, the 51-year-old former air traffic controller reportedly told a bartender in another town that he needed a place to hide because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men.
In India, the father of one of the wounded men called Wednesday’s attack in the Kansas City suburbs a hate crime, but authorities on Friday declined to discuss a motive as they investigated. The shooting swiftly stoked fears about the treatment of immigrants, who feel targeted by President Donald Trump’s promises to ban certain travellers, build a wall along the Mexico border and put “America first”.
The president has been especially vocal about the threat posed by extremist terrorist groups. Both of the Indian men were Hindu.
The slain man was identified as Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32. His widow said he came to the United States in 2005 to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Texas at El Paso and worked in Iowa for six years before moving to the Kansas City area.
“He did not deserve a death like this,” Sunayana Dumala said on Friday at a news conference organised by her husband’s employer, the GPS device-maker Garmin.
“I don’t know what to say. We’ve read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening somewhere. I was always concerned, ‘ Are we doing the right thing staying in the US or America?’ But he always assured me good
things happen in America.”
Though she did not mention Trump by name, she directed anger at the US government, asking what officials would do to stop hate crimes.
“Not everyone will be harmful to this country,” she said.
Purinton was jailed on murder and attempted murder charges. His first court appearance was scheduled for tomorrow.
A bartender at Austins Bar and Grill in the suburb of Olathe said Purinton used racial slurs before firing.
He was taken into custody about five hours later after speaking with another bartender at an Applebee’s
some 112km away in Clinton, Missouri.
The Kansas City Star reported Purinton’s comments to the second bartender. The paper did not cite its sources.
The other men who were shot were identified as 32-year-old Alok Madasani, who was released from the hospital on Thursday, and 24-year-old Ian Grillot, who remained hospitalised.
Madasani’s father, Jaganmohan Reddy, said he had spoken with his wounded son by phone from India and was worried about his safety.
“I request other parents to think twice before sending their children to the United States,” he said. — AP WASHINGTON: A son of boxing legend Muhammad Ali was held for questioning for two hours at a Florida airport upon returning from Jamaica because of his Arabicsounding name, US media reported.
Muhammad Ali Jr, 44, who was born in Philadelphia and has a US passport, was traveling with his mother Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the late sports icon’s second wife, friend and lawyer Chris Mancini told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Mancini told the newspaper that both were held for questioning on the Fort Lauderdale International Airport on Feb 7 because of their Arabic-sounding names.
Camacho-Ali, however, was released after she showed US Customs agents a photo of herself with her ex-husband.
Ali Jr, however, had no such photo – and according to Mancini was held for nearly two hours and repeatedly asked “Where did you get your name from?” and “Are you Muslim?”
When he said that he – like his father – was a Muslim, the agents asked further probing questions.
“To the Ali family, it’s crystal clear that this is directly linked to Mr Trump’s efforts to ban Muslims from the United States,” Mancini told the Courier-Journal, a reference to President Donald Trump’s late January executive order.
The travel ban has since been halted by a US federal court. — AFP