HYDERABAD: A week after 25-year-old Sharath Koppu of Warangal was shot dead in a restaurant in Kansas, USA, the suspect involved in the incident was killed in an encounter in which three US police officers were also injured, US authorities said on Monday.
According to local news reports, when undercover police officials were closing in on the suspect near a Kansas City motel, he shot two police officers with a rifle and fled in a car with another person.
Investigators believe 25-year-old Marlin Mack opened fire on officers Sunday with a high-powered semi-automatic rifle during a confrontation that began outside a motel before moving to a nearby home, Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith told the Associated Press.
Later, the suspect ditched the car and police caught up with him near a residential home, close to 30th and Topping locality. Soon, another round of gun battle ensued which continued for an hour until the suspect was shot dead. The other person, who was in the car with him, has been taken into custody.
According to the police, the three officers’ wounds were not life-threatening. “It was for this, we were trying to get up on this individual - we`d been looking for him all week. This was the first time we laid eyes on him,” Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith was quoted as saying.
Soon after the suspect’s death, the Indian Association of Kansas City issued an statement saying, “We are happy to hear that the suspect was caught and justice has been served to Sharath. On the same lines, we are equally disheartened hearing about the three officers who were shot in pursuit. Our thoughts and prayers are with them for a speedy recovery.”
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Suspect opened fire twice on officials
On July 6, Sharath was fatally shot in the back during a suspected attempted robbery at a Kansas restaurant. He was with his two other friends, who managed to escape. Koppu was studying for a master's degree in computer engineering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
After Koppu’s death, homicide detectives had released surveillance video of a possible suspect within a day. Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith told AP that close to 40 tips came in and police identified the suspect and termed him as “a person of interest”. "I can't thank those people enough for having the courage to call our tips hotline and being willing to reach out to us," Smith said.
Smith said police were not aware of Mack before Koppu's shooting. Prison officials in Missouri and Kansas have no record of any prior violations, and online court records show no criminal history for Mack.
His death comes only a year after shooting of another city-based techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla in February 2017.
Yugi Lee, a professor in the Missouri-Kansas City School of Computing and Engineering, said Monday that Koppu was one of the top students in two classes he took from her and a summer course she coordinated. She said he had the second-best overall score in one class and the top mark in the second class, and also showed leadership and innovative thinking. Lee said she intended to contact Koppu's parents in India to show them what an exceptional student their son had been.
"We are missing him a lot," Lee said. "He was an excellent student. We are pretty shocked and sad about the situation."
(With inputs from AP)