New Delhi [India], May 6 (ANI): A Kansas man who fatally shot an Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in a racially motivated hate crime at a sports bar in Kansas city in the United States was on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment.
Adam Purinton, a US Navy veteran had earlier pleaded guilty of killing Kuchibotla last month. A federal judge in Kansas ruled that Purinton would spend his life in prison for the first-degree murder of Kuchibhotla and 165 months for each of the other two murders that he was charged with, CNN reported.
During the shooting, Purinton injured Alok Madasani, who was with the victim, and Ian Grillot, who tried to intervene and stop him, was also wounded. In a statement after the hearing, Kuchibotla’s wife Sunayana Dumala “urged people to spread love and stand up to hate.”
“Today’s sentencing in the murder of my husband will not bring back my Srinu, but it sends a strong message that hate is never acceptable. I continue to use what has happened as a platform with the hope of saving others from going through this hell,” Dumala was quoted by CNN affiliate KCTV as saying.
According to CNN, Kuchibhotla and Madasani, both originally from India, worked as engineers at Garmin, a technological company that makes GPS devices.
The incident occurred on September 22, 2017, when the two Indian men, were having a drink at the sports bar after work when Purinton got agitated. He was then asked to leave by Grillot, a regular at the bar.
He returned afterward and went on a shooting spree in the bar, killing Kuchibotla and the two others. He fled after the attack but was later arrested at an Applebee’s restaurant in Missouri.
Eyewitnesses said that Purinton supposedly yelled, “Get out of my country,” before fatally shooting Kuchibhotla.
-ANI