911 call: Bar gunman believed victims were Iranian

A Kansas man accused of fatally shooting a bar patron in Olathe thought he killed an Iranian immigrant, a bartender told a 911 dispatcher hours after the shooting.

Adam Purinton, 51, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder after witnesses say he walked into Austin’s Bar and Grill on last Wednesday night, yelled “Get out of my country,” and began shooting.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed, and Alok Madasani, 32, was wounded. Both men were from India and worked at a nearby tech firm.

A third man who tried to stop the attack also was wounded.

Hours later, a bartender at Clinton, Mo., called 911 and said a man walked into an Applebee’s restaurant and announced he had “killed two Iranians.” The woman warned police not to arrive with sirens blaring for fear the man would “freak out.” Police arrested Purinton without incident a short time later.

“Based upon the initial investigative activity, the FBI, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, is investigating this incident as a hate crime,” the FBI’s Kansas City Division said in a statement. “The FBI will continue to work jointly with the Olathe Police Department and our state and local partners regarding the ongoing investigation.”

The White House expressed concern over the shooting for the second day in a row.

“The president condemns these and any other racially and religiously motivated attacks,” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said. “They have no place in our country, and we will continue to make that clear.”

Kuchibhotla worked for the GPS device-maker Garmin. Company officials pledged to ensure that Kuchibhotla’s wife can return to the United States after traveling to India for her husband’s burial, The Kansas City Star reported. Garmin said Kuchibhotla had a work permit, which allowed his wife, Sunayana Dumala, to live and work in the United States.

“My husband came to the United States with lots of dreams,” she said. “We made Kansas our home, we made Olathe our home.”

Hundreds of friends and family members mourned Kuchibhotla on Tuesday in the engineer’s southern India hometown of Hyderabad in Telangana state. His parents, Madhusudhan Rao and Parvatha Vardhini, wept as his body was cremated, the Associated Press reported.

Losing a young family member is an unbearable pain, P. L. Narayana, his uncle, told AP.

“It is so cruel. He was such a kind soul, very friendly,” Narayana said. “He was so excited that he and his wife were going to start a family soon.”

Kuchibhotla’s mother said her son had told her he felt safe in America.

“Now I want my younger son and his family to come back for good,” she told AP.