Family of Indian man killed in possible hate crime shooting in Kansas urges authorities to investigate thoroughly

ABCNews.com(LAWRENCE, Kan.) — The family of an Indian man killed in a possible hate crime shooting in Kansas spoke out Friday and urged authorities to thoroughly investigate the matter, which they said they believed was not a random incident.

The Indian government “should voice out this strongly [to U.S. authorities] because our brothers, sisters and our relatives are there,” Venu Madhav, a brother of shooting victim Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, told South Asian news agency Asian News International (ANI) on Friday.

Madhav suggested to ANI that he believed the incident was not just a random shooting, saying, that “if you really look into this incident, this is not done by a teenager or a burglar, or something like that [or] a drug addict. It is [allegedly] done by a [51-year-old] man.”

Another brother to Kuchibhotla, K.K. Shastri, told ANI that he wants authorities to release Kuchibhotla’s body to the family overseas as soon as possible.

“We want the body to be here at the earliest,” Shastri said. “We are waiting.”

As the brothers spoke to reporters outside of their home in India, other relatives of Kuchibhotla were seen on video mourning quietly in the home, including one woman who was wiping away tears.

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies in the U.S. are investigating whether the shooting that left Kuchibhotla dead was a hate crime.

The shooting happened at the Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas, on Wednesday evening, according to authorities.

A day after triple shooting that left one dead outside Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, flowers adorn a makeshift memorial in front of bar. pic.twitter.com/pjVgYP7GSq

— Toriano Porter (@torianoporter) February 23, 2017

The FBI is investigating whether the shooting was a bias crime, according to Kansas City FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Eric Jackson. He said that the FBI was going to investigate “from every angle to “determine what the true facts are.”

Local police added that they would also look into whether the shooting was racially motivated.

Authorities have done dozens of interviews of witnesses. Asking those w/ info to contact @OlathePolice pic.twitter.com/TK7iQDSuxY

— Laura Ziegler (@laurazig) February 23, 2017

The shooting killed Kuchibhotla and injured two others — Alok Madasani, 32, and Ian Grillot, 24, officials said.

Madasani and Grillot were taken to a local hospital where they were listed in stable condition, officials said.

The suspect, Adam W. Purinton, fled after the shooting, according to Olathe Police Chief Steven Menke.

Purinton was found and arrested early the following morning in Clinton, Missouri, and charged with one count of premeditated murder and two counts of premeditated attempted murder, according to Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

Purinton is being held on a $2 million bond, Howe said.

The triple-shooting has shaken many, both in the U.S. and in India.

“I am very disturbed by last night’s shooting in Olathe,” Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran said in a statement. “I strongly condemn violence of any kind, especially if it is motivated by prejudice and xenophobia.”

I strongly condemn violence of any kind, especially if it is motivated by prejudice & xenophobia―my statement on the tragedy in Olathe: pic.twitter.com/4Nn079Q3Wv

— Jerry Moran (@JerryMoran) February 24, 2017

India’s minister of external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, wrote on Twitter that she was “shocked at the shooting incident in Kansas in which Srinivas Kuchibhotla has been killed.”

Swaraj said she sent her “heartfelt condolences to [the] bereaved family” and that she has been in contact with Navtej Sarna, India’s ambassador to the U.S. Swaraj said Sarna told her that two Indian embassy officials “have rushed to Kansas.”

I have assured all help and assistance to the family.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) February 24, 2017

“We will provide all help and assistance to the bereaved family,” Swaraj said. “I have spoken to the father and Mr. K.K. Shastri, brother of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, in Hyderabad and conveyed my condolences to the family.”

Madasani, who survived the shooting, has been discharged from the hospital, Swaraj noted on Twitter.

Grillot, the other survivor of the shooting, said in an interview from his hospital bed that he was “incredibly lucky.”

“I could have never walked again or seen my family again,” he said in a video posted online by the University of Kansas Health System.

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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