Inside a Kansas City bar on Wednesday, two Indian men were shot by a man who yelled, “Get out of my country.”
One man, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, died; the other, Alok Madasani, was injured. A third man — Ian Grillot, a young white American who jumped in to help — was also injured.
Adam Purinton, the 51-year-old man who was arrested for murder and attempted murder that night, reportedly went to another town and told a bartender there that he had just killed two Middle Eastern men.
The Asian Pacific American community, in response, has condemned the attack, connecting the tragedy to the recent rise of xenophobic and racist rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims in the country.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice, which comprises five civil rights organizations, said Friday that it is “saddened and angered” by the shooting, and pointed to the 1982 hate crime case of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who suffered death in Detroit at the hands of two white men who thought he was Japanese.
The “rhetoric and actions of the Trump administration,” said Stewart Kwoh, president and executive director of AAAJ-Los Angeles, “set the stage for Srinivas Kuchibhotla to be the Vincent Chin of our current generation.” Kwoh spent decades seeking justice for Chin alongside Chin’s mother in Michigan.
“We demand a thorough investigation into the shootings, including the hate crime allegations, and for local, state and national leaders to denounce such hate and violence,” Kwoh said in a statement.
According to the Associated Press, authorities have declined to call the incident a hate crime. The family of one of the wounded men has. Kuchibhotla’s body will be transported to Hyderabad, home to his family.
Kuchibhotla was a Hindu who worked as an engineer for Garmin. Madasani, too, is an engineer. The pair were regulars at the bar in which they were shot.
Purinton, reportedly drunk, threw racial slurs at Kuchibhotla and Madasani before attacking.
“The United States is a nation of immigrants and welcomes people from across the world to visit, work, study and live,” MaryKay Carlson, of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, told AP. “U.S. authorities will investigate thoroughly and prosecute the case, though we recognize that justice is small consolation to families in grief.”
A GoFundMe for Kuchibhotla has raised more than $397,000, as of Friday morning, in support of his family.
“Srini was the kindest person you would meet, full of love, care and compassion for everyone,” the page reads. “He never uttered a word of hatred, a simple gossip, or a careless comment. He was brilliant, well-mannered and simply an outstanding human being.”
“Indian Americans, particularly Sikhs, have shared the considerable cost of anti-Muslim violence in recent years and our communities live with increasing fear,” said Aarti Kohli, executive director of AAAJ-Asian Law Caucus. “We ask all Asian Americans to rise up and demand a change in rhetoric and policy from our leaders. Attend a town hall or city council meeting and ask what public officials plan to do to ensure that all Americans feel safe in their communities, regardless of their race or immigration status.”
