India outraged at US hate crime shooting
‘GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY, TERRORIST,’ GUNMAN SHOUTED
A n Indian engineer was killed and another injured by an American who mistook them for “Middle Easterners” and yelled “Get out of my country” before shooting them at a bar.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and Alok Madasani was injured when Adam W. Purinton, a white who earlier served in the US Navy, shot them in Olathe, Kansas.
Purinton reportedly got into an argument with the victims and hurled racial slurs. He yelled “get out of my country”, “terrorist” before shooting them. Ian Grillot, 24, an American who tried to save the Indians, was also shot at.
“I am shocked at the shooting incident in Kansas,” tweeted India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj.
The Hindu American Foundation called it a hate crime.
The shooting triggered outrage on social media, where people voiced concern that US President Donald Trump’s “America First” position on immigration and jobs has fuelled a climate of intolerance.
“Don’t be shocked! Be angry!” Siddharth, a wellknown South Indian actor who uses one name, tweeted to his 2.6 million followers in remarks echoed across social media. “Trump is spreading hate. This is a hate crime! RIP #SrinivasKuchibhotla.”
The White House said it would be absurd to link the action to Trump’s rhetoric.
Kavipriya Muthuramalingam, a friend and former colleague of the victim, who hailed from Hyderabad, raised more than $250,000 via a crowdfunding website to help with funeral and other expenses.
Purinton, 51, was arrested in neighbouring Missouri when a bartender told police that he had bragged about killing “two Middle Eastern men”.
T he fatal shooting in Kansas, USA, of an engineer from Hyderabad has sent waves of shock and grief in Telangana. Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a 32-year-old employee of US technology company Garmin, died, while his colleague and friend Madasani Alok Reddy was wounded, after an American Navy veteran opened fire at them in a bar — in an apparent hate crime.
The news came as a shock to the state, where another family cremated a young engineer only a week ago. He too was shot dead in the US, by a suspected drug addict.
While Kuchibhotla hails from Hyderabad, Alok, who has since been discharged from hospital, is a native of Warangal, the same place to which the victim of last week’s shooting belongs to.
Parents unable to talk
Meanwhile, Kuchibhotla’s home on Hyderabad city’s outskirts was enveloped in gloom and grief. His parents, Madhusudhan Rao and Vardhini, were in deep shock and unable to talk since they heard the news of the death of their son in the Kansas shooting. Srinivas was their second son. Another of their sons is in the US while a third, Shastri, is based in Hyderabad.
Srinivas did his engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University in Hyderabad and obtained a master’s degree from the University of Texas, El Paso. He is survived by his pregnant wife Sunayana. He was working in the aviation wing of Garmin.
This is second incident of killing of a Telangana youth in the USA this month.
Another engineer Vamsi Reddy Mamidala from Warangal was killed in Milpitas, California on February 10 when a suspected drug addict opened fire at him in the parking lot of his apartment.
The father of wounded Alok, M. Jaganmohan Reddy, was also shocked since hearing about the shooting incident in the bar in Kansas on Wednesday night.
In a reflection of growing concern over the volatile situation in the US, Jaganmohan Reddy appealed to parents to think twice before sending their children to the United States.
Reddy, who spoke to his injured son over phone said, “I am very much concerned about the security of my son and I want him to come back at the earliest. I request the other parents to think twice before sending their children to the US,” he said.
Alok’s elder brother, who lives in Dallas, informed the family in India about the incident.
Alok did his first degree Vasavi College of Engineering in Hyderabad before going to the US for his post graduation in University of Missouri. He worked at Rockwell Collins and later joined at aviation wing of Garmin in July 2014 where he worked with Kuchibhotla. Amid rising alarm in India over the increasing climate of hatred and xenophobia under President Donald Trump, a popular South Indian actor Siddharth posted an angry message over Twitter.
“Don’t be shocked! Be angry! Trump is spreading hate. This is a hate crime! RIP #SrinivasKuchibhotla,” wrote the actor who is followed by 2.6 million on the Twitter.
India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj expressed deep shock over the incident. She said she had spoken to Kuchibhotla’s brother K.K. Shastri.
“We will make all arrangements to transport the mortal remains of Srinivas Kuchibhotla to Hyderabad,” she tweeted.
Meanwhile Ian Grillot, an American who jumped to the defence of the Indians and was wounded in the Kansas bar shooting, was being hailed as a hero in the Telugu media.