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Jaganmohan Reddy, father of Alok Madasani, an engineer who was injured in the Kansas bar shooting. Picture: Mahesh A. Kumar/AP
A MAN injured in a neighbourhood bar shooting in suburban Kansas City that witnesses say was racially motivated says the alleged shooter asked two of the victims about their visa status before later returning and opening fire, killing one man and wounding another.
Thirty-two-year-old Alok Madasani told The New York Times that while at while at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas, Adam Purinton “asked us what visa are we currently on and whether we are staying here illegally.”
Adam Purinton has been charged with murder after the Wednesday night shooting. Picture: APSource:AP
Both men were educated in the United States and were working here legally.
Mr Madasani told the Times: “We didn’t react. People do stupid things all the time. This guy took it to the next level.”
Mr Madasani said he went in to get a manager, and by the time he returned to the patio, the man was being escorted out.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, a Garmin engineer from Hyderabad, the capital of the southern Telangana state, died of his wounds. Mr Madasani and 24-year-old Ian Grillot, were injured in the shooting. Mr Madasani was released from the hospital while Mr Grillot remains hospitalised.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, right, poses for photo with his wife Sunayana Dumala in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Picture: Kranti Shalia/APSource:AP
Mr Grillot, who jumped to the defence of the Indians in the bar, was hailed as a hero by local media.
When bullets flew, Mr Grillot — whom bar patron Garret Bohnen described as “everyone’s friend” — intervened heroically.
Mr Grillot said in a video released by the University of Kansas Health System that he took cover under a table until he mistakenly thought the suspect ran out of ammo after nine shots were fired.
“I got behind him and he turned around and fired at me,” Mr Grillot said from his hospital bed.
The bullets narrowly missed his carotid artery but fractured a vertebra and his neck.
“I’m grateful to be alive,” he said. “Another half-inch and I could be dead or never walk again.”
Alok Madasani's father Jaganmohan Reddy shows the media a photo of his son. Picture: Mahesh Kumar A./APSource:AP
Purinton was arrested early on Thursday at a restaurant bar in Clinton, Missouri. He is jailed on murder and attempted murder charges.
He was buoyed when Mr Madasani visited him Thursday morning.
“It put the biggest smile on my face,” said Mr Grillot, who later found out that Mr Madasani’s wife is five months pregnant. “I was just doing what anyone should’ve done for another human being,” Mr Grillot said as tears welled. “It’s not about where he’s from or his ethnicity. We’re all humans. I just felt like I did what was naturally right to do.”