Bar shooting suspect asked victims if ‘status was legal’
Britta Lee, Regional Content Editor
Alok Madasani, left, and his wife Reepthi Gangula hold candles during a vigil Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at the Ball Conference Center in Olathe, Kan., held in response to the deadly shooting Wednesday. (Allison Long/The Kansas City Star via AP)
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — An Indian man wounded in an apparently racially motivated shooting that killed his friend at a suburban Kansas City bar has told detectives the gunman asked if their “status was legal.”
Johnson County court officials released a redacted affidavit Monday for 51-year-old Adam Purinton, who is charged with murder and attempted murder in the Feb. 22 shooting at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe, Kansas.
The shooting killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla and wounded his friend, Alok Madasani. The FBI is investigating the incident as a hate crime. This Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, photo provided by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Olathe, Kan., shows Adam Purinton, who has been charged with murder and attempted murder in the Wednesday night shooting at a crowded bar in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe. . (Johnson County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
The affidavit says Purinton was escorted out of the bar after confronting the two Indian men and opened fire with a handgun after returning about 30 minutes later. A third man, Ian Grillot, was wounded when he intervened. In this undated photo provided by Kranti Shalia, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, left, poses for photo with Alok Madasani and his wife Sunayana Dumala in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In the middle of a crowded bar, a 51-year-old former air traffic controller yelled at two Indian men – Kuchibhotla and Madasani – 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, Thursday, Feb 23, 2017, in Olathe, Kan. (Kranti Shalia via AP)
