A Kansas man who yelled “Get out of my country” before pumping bullets into two Indian engineers — killing one and injuring the other — was sentenced by a federal judge to three life terms in prison, federal officials announced on Tuesday.
Adam Purinton, 52, was handed three consecutive life sentences for opening fire in Austin’s Bar and Grill in Olathe on Feb. 22, 2017 — killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who had stopped in to enjoy after-work drinks with his friend, Alok Madasani.
Purinton pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges, admitting he targeted the Indian immigrants — both 32 — because of their race and the country they were from. Prosecutors agreed not to seek a death sentence as part of the plea agreement.
The day of the shooting, Purinton verbally harassed the men, who had come to the US as students and worked at nearby GPS maker Garmin. He was kicked out of the bar for the derogatory comments but returned a short time later, spraying bullets from a 9mm and hitting Kuchibhotla at least four times.
Another man, Ian Grillot, 24, was shot in the hand and chest when he tried to intervene. Purinton was arrested several hours later at a bar in Missouri where he told the bartender he was running from the police because he’d killed “two Iranians.”
None of his victims were in court on Tuesday as US District Judge Carlos Murguia followed the terms of the plea agreement, the Kansas City Star reported.
A prosecutor read a statement from Sunayana Dumala, the wife of the slain victim.
“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,” she said in a statement. “Instead you chose to rage and bully in anger and when you were stopped, you decided to take their lives.”
The sentence was handed down on the wife’s 34th birthday, and she wrote in the statement that is was “extremely painful for me to witness or face the shooter in person.”
Purrinton was also sentenced to life in May on state charges of murder and attempted murder in Johnson County District Court after pleading guilty.
