Adam Purinton, a former US Navy veteran, on Tuesday pleaded guilty in a Kansas court to gunning down Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla in a patent hate crime that also injured his friend Alok Madasani and a bystander at a sports bar in February 2017. He will be sentenced on May 4.
“Get out of my country,” the 52-year-old Purinton had yelled before the shooting at Austin’s Bar and Grill in Olathe, the fourth most populous city in Kansas State, in a crime that sent shock waves through immigrant communities, giving rise to fears of growing intolerance towards foreigners.
The incident also highlighted the goodness of average Americans with one of them, Ian Grillot, who was hurt in the shooting as he tried to intervene and save the Indians being targeted by the shooter. Grillot, who was shot in the hand and chest, was praised as a hero for attempting to subdue the suspect.
Sunayana Dhumala, the widow of 32-year-old Kuchibhotla, said the suspect’s guilty plea will send a strong message that hate is never acceptable.
“Today’s guilty verdict will not bring back my Srinu, but it will send a strong message that hate is never acceptable. We must understand and love one another,” Dhumala said in a statement.
Purinton had been charged with first-degree murder of Kuchibhotla and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shootings of his friend, Madasani, and Grillot. Kuchibhotla and Madasani worked as engineers at Garmin, the tech firm.
During a preliminary hearing last November, Purinton had opted not to plead guilty. While accepting his new plea, Judge Charles Droege told him that with the change of his plea, he would face life in prison, besides a minimum of 146 months and maximum of 653 months in prison for attempted murder.
After the shooting in the Olathe bar, Purinton had tried to escape, driving east to Clinton, over 100 km away in neighbouring Missouri. There, he stopped at a restaurant and reportedly confessed.