‘He Didn’t Deserve a Death Like This’: Wife of Indian Killed in US
Wife of Indian shot dead by an American in a bar in the US, in act of racial hatred crime asks ‘do we belong here?’
Sunayana Dumala, the wife of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian techie who was killed in a shooting at a suburban Kansas City bar says she wonders what the U.S. will do to stop hate crimes against minorities. 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.
The killing shocked India. The Indian Foreign Minister tweeted about the sad incident.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla had come to the U.S. in 2005 to pursue a master's degree at the University of Texas at El Paso.
He worked in Iowa for six years before moving to the Kansas City area, his widow said Friday at a news conference organized by her husband's employer, the GPS device-maker Garmin.
"He did not deserve a death like this," Sunayana Dumala said.
"I don't know what to say. We've read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening somewhere. But he always assured me that only good things happen to good people."
Though she did not mention President Donald Trump by name, she directed anger at the U.S. government, asking what officials would do to stop hate crimes.
Purinton was charged with murder and attempted murder in the Wednesday night shooting in the suburb of Olathe.
A bartender at Austins Bar and Grill 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 70 miles away in Clinton, Missouri.
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