KANSAS CITY: An Indian man wounded in an apparently racially motivated shooting that killed his friend at a suburban Kansas City bar told detectives that the gunman asked if their "status was legal" before he opened fire, according to an affidavit released Monday.
Adam Purinton, 51, is jailed in Johnson County, Kansas, on $2 million bonds on murder and attempted murder charges in Feb. 22 shooting at Austin's Bar & Grill in Olathe, Kansas. The FBI is investigating the shooting as a hate crime. Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed and his friend, Alok Madasani, was wounded. A third man, Ian Grillot, was shot and wounded when he intervened.
The Associated Press left a message for Purinton's public defender, Michael McCulloch, seeking comment.
A detective wrote in the affidavit that Grillot and another person asked Purinton to leave when he confronted Kuchibhotla and Madasani in the bar. Some of the affidavits has been redacted and it offered little information about what specifically was said, other than that Madasani told detectives Purinton asked whether the Indian men's "status was legal." Both men worked as engineers for GPS-device maker Garmin in Olathe.
Employees eventually escorted Purinton from the bar, but he returned with a handgun about 30 minutes later, the affidavit said. Madasani told a detective that he heard people saying, "He's back and he has a gun!" and then he was shot in the leg.
Grillot told a detective that he chased Purinton because he believed he was out of ammunition, but he was wrong and Purinton shot him once. The bullet went through his hand and entered his chest.
The affidavit said Purinton, of Olathe, was a regular customer at the bar and that employees were able to identify him through card receipts. The affidavit described him as wearing a white T-shirt with military-style medals on it. Purinton was a Navy veteran.
Authorities arrested him hours later at an Applebee's restaurant some 70 miles away in Clinton, Missouri. A bartender at the restaurant told a 911 dispatcher that the man had admitted to shooting two people, but that he described them as Iranian, according to a recording of that call.