Kansas man sentenced to life for killing Indian engineer in a bar - NBC News

Kansas man sentenced to life for killing Indian engineer in a bar
Adam Purinton shot and killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, after yelling, "Get out of my country." He also wounded another Indian man and a good Samaritan.
by Chris Fuchs / Aug.08.2018 / 3:19 AM ET
A Kansas man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for fatally shooting an engineer from India after calling him a “terrorist" and yelling, "Get out of my country!" in a bar confrontation last year. The victim's companion, also from India, and a bar patron who intervened were wounded.

Adam Purinton, 53, was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty in May to three federal counts, including hate crime and firearm charges.

Image: Adam Purinton appearing via video conference from jail during his initial court appearance in OlatheAdam Purinton appears via video conference from jail during his initial court appearance in Olathe, Kansas, on Feb. 27, 2017.Jill Toyoshiba / Reuters pool file
Purinton admitted to killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and wounding his friend Alok Madasani and a good Samaritan, Ian Gillot, at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas, in February 2017.

Purinton poked Kuchibhotla in the chest and called him an epithet against people of Middle Eastern descent, according to the Justice Department.

Image: Srinivas Kuchibhotla, left, poses for photo with Alok Madasani and his wife Sunayana Dumala in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.Srinivas Kuchibhotla, left, with Alok Madasani and Kuchibhotla's wife, Sunayana Dumala, in an undated photo.AP
He then drove home, got a gun and returned to the bar.

“The crimes at issue in this case are detestable," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said a statement Tuesday. "The defendant acted with clear premeditation in murdering one man, and attempting to murder a second man, simply because of their race, religion and national origin. As a result, a promising young life has been tragically cut short, and other lives have been filled with suffering.”

Purinton’s federal defense attorneys did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Kuchibhotla was an aviation systems engineer and programs manager at the GPS maker Garmin. A spokesperson for his wife, Sunayana Dumala, said she would not attend Tuesday’s sentencing.

In her victim-impact statement, Dumala described Kuchibhotla as kind, caring and always respectful of others.

“If you could have kept your anger inside and spoke to my husband softly, Srinu would have been more than happy to share his background and help you understand that not every brown-skinned person is suspicious or evil, but kind, smart and contributing to America,” Dumala said. “Instead you chose to rage and bully in anger and when you were stopped, you decided to take their lives.”

Purinton’s sentencing on the federal indictment came a little more than three months after he was sentenced to life, 50 years without the possibility of parole, on a state charge of premeditated first-degree murder.


Kansas man pleads guilty to killing one in alleged hate crime
MAR.07.201801:22
A few weeks before the Feb. 22, 2017, shooting, Purinton was sitting alone at Austins Bar and Grill when he spotted Kuchibhotla and Madasani having a drink. In his plea agreement, he admitted saying to another patron, “Did you see the terrorists on the patio?”

On the night of the shooting, Purinton, again by himself, confronted Kuchibhotla and Madasani, demanding to know where they were from and how they got into the country.

Many crimes may look motivated by hate. Proving it can be a different story.
Purinton was escorted out of the bar, but drove home to get a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol. He had also changed his shirt and put on a blue-and-white scarf to disguise his identity, prosecutors said.

After shooting Kuchibhotla and Madasani, Purinton fled the bar, turning to shoot Grillot, who had given chase.

Hours later, Purinton told a friend over the phone, and later a bartender in person, that “he had just killed some Iranians,” according to prosecutors.

Purinton admitted that he had tried to kill Kuchibhotla and Madasani “because of their race, color, religion and national origin.”

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GUNS IN AMERICA
Gun control group targets firearms owners with new ads, seeks common ground
Gun regulation group coins a new term, 'family fire,' to describe the unintentional shooting of children in homes where guns are stored improperly.
by Dennis Romero / Aug.08.2018 / 11:03 PM ET



'End Family Fire' campaign targets gun owners
AUG.08.201802:14
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the group behind federal background checks for firearms purchasers, is launching a new ad campaign that is an effort to find common ground in a country divided on the issue of gun control.

The campaign launching Wednesday, finds its way to television via public service announcements facilitated by the Ad Council, and aims to make the term "family fire" a household word as it describes accidental shootings of children and other family members in homes across the nation.

"Rather than mudslinging and name calling, we’re focusing on how can we act to keep our kids alive," said Kyleanne Hunter, a Brady Center vice president. "And that might open the door to more discussion about how to end gun violence."

This foot-in-the-door strategy is composed of at least a year's worth of "End Family Fire" TV, digital and online ads that center on a conversation between an elementary-school aged boy and his father.

Ghost and the machine: Why officials across the country fear a new era of untraceable firearms
The boy asks if a firearm is in the house, but he soon reveals that he knows where it's kept and that he could use it to confront a bully. "But it is our gun," the boy says. "In our home. Happens all the time."

The full-length spot concludes with the words, "8 kids a day are accidentally killed or injured by FAMILY FIRE. FAMILY FIRE is a shooting involving an improperly stored gun."

The Brady Center, citing U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, states that 4.6 million children live in homes with unlocked and loaded guns; three in four know where the guns are stored.

So far, gun-owners' rights groups don't appear to be open to the Family Fire campaign. The National Rifle Association didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

But Jordan Stein, director of communications for the organization Gun Owners of America said via email that locking up firearms is not a panacea for keeping children away from danger.

"Every death is tragic, but statistically speaking, more young children die choking on hotdogs than are killed accidentally by firearms," he said, supporting his argument with recent data from the CDC. "So forcing every home to have their guns locked up will only make gun owners less safe. After all, when a criminal breaks into a person’s home, he’s not going to wait for the gun owner to unlock his firearm."

New "End Family Fire" Campaign Promotes Safer Gun Storage to Save LivesThe Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the Ad Council, and Droga5 introduce new phrase and national PSAs to reduce the number of deaths and injuries resulting from unsecured or misused guns in the home.The Brady Campaign
The timing of the ad blitz — there still has been no federal legislative action following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida Feb. 14 and following the Las Vegas massacre Oct. 1 — could also be seen by anti-gun activists as odd.

Advocates for stricter rules for firearms owners are also grappling with hi-tech weapons, such as 3D printed guns and "ghost guns" made of untracable parts, that exist under the radar of law enforcement in most states.

But Brady Center officials say the need to find compromise with the gun owners' rights contingent is urgent: without it, a fix for easy access to firearms on the part of criminals and mass shooters might never be addressed.

"In the gun violence conversation, gun owners were largely missing," Hunter said. Added Kris Brown, co-president of the organization, "People are frustrated by the stalemate we have on both sides."

Keeping children away from guns should be a no-brainer, they argue, that everyone can get behind (even as comedian Sacha Baron Cohen trolled some Republicans to admit they embrace the idea that kids should be trained to use firearms).

"This is completely outside the realm of politics," Brown said. "It's not red state, blue state — it’s families who want to do what’s best to protect the most vulnerable."

In fact the Family Fire campaign officially recommends simply that gun owners with firearms stored in homes where children live keep them "secure" and separate from ammunition. "A simple gun lock can make a major difference," the campaign states on its website.

Hunter said the campaign, which is supported by the groups Droga5, National Parent Teacher Association, Doctors for America, the DC Police Foundation and others, is "in some ways" akin to the harm reduction movement for drug users: if nothing can stop it, society might as well make it as safe as possible.

"We have to find a way to foster a more rich and common understanding about guns in this country that don’t cause people to go to the other side of the divide," Brown said.