Delhi: Family members of the Indian men shot at a bar in Olathe, Kansas, in a possible hate crime said they feared the current atmosphere of fear and xenophobia in the United States means the country is not a safe place for Indians, with one father exhorting parents not to send their children there.
"There is a kind of hysteria spreading [in India] that is not good because so many of our beloved children live there," said Venu Madhav, a relative of the Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the young software engineer killed on Wednesday night. "Such hatred is not good for people."
Kuchibhotla and his friend and colleague Alok Madansani, 32, were at a crowded bar watching a basketball game on Wednesday when a drunken man allegedly began hurling racial slurs at them, then opened fire, reportedly shouting "get out of my country".
Kuchibhotla, 32, was seriously wounded in the attack and died later at a hospital. Madansani and a third victim, Ian Grillot, who tried to intervene, were treated for shotgun wounds at a hospital.
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Adam Purinton, 51, a Navy veteran, was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Federal law enforcement officials said they and local police were investigating to determine whether the shootings were "bias motivated".
Witnesses said that Purinton seemed to be under the impression that the men were of Middle Eastern descent.
Family members of the victims living in the southern city of Hyderabad told the Hindustan Times that the two friends – software engineers with technology firm Garmin – had not antagonised Purinton, and that Purinton had "picked an argument" with the men, suggesting that they were staying in the United States illegally.
At least one witness said that the gunman yelled "get out of my country" before opening fire, The Kansas City Star reported.
A bartender at a Missouri restaurant where Purinton was later captured said he had heard him say that he had killed two Middle Eastern men.
"They tried to tell him that they had done their [master's degrees] in Kansas in 2006 and had been staying there with valid work permits," a relative said.
Kuchibhotla and Madasani were employees on the Aviation Systems Engineering team at Garmin, headquartered in Olathe. According to Kuchibhotla's LinkedIn account, he held a master's degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso and a bachelor's degree from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in India.
Madasani's LinkedIn said he studied at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and at Vasavi College of Engineering in India.
Madasani's father, Madasani Jaganmohan Reddy, told the Hindustan Times that in recent months, he had begun to ask his son to return home, fearing that he might not be safe in the country's racially charged atmosphere, with ugly incidents and hate groups on the rise.
"The situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took over as the US president. I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the United States in the present circumstances," Reddy said.
Trump has vowed to deport illegal immigrants and to stop others from certain majority-Muslim nations from entering the US. The actions have created fear and uncertainly among many long standing migrant communities as well as recent arrivals.
Madhav said Kuchibhotla's family was in shock, and that it was the third such possible hate crime in recent weeks affecting members of the Telegu-speaking Southern Indian community in the US.
"Something has changed in the United States," he said. "Such things are not good for the Indian community living here."
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said she was "shocked" at the attack, and "rushed" two diplomats from the consulate in Houston to Kansas. She later reported Madansani has been released from hospital.
I am shocked at the shooting incident in Kansas in which Srinivas Kuchibhotla has been killed. My heartfelt condolences to bereaved family.
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) February 24, 2017
Meanwhile, cable news channels debated whether the United States was now a danger zone for those with brown skin. "Is this the new normal?" An anchor on NDTV news channel wondered.
An estimated 300,000 Indians are working in the United States on H-1B high-skilled worker visas, most in the business outsourcing and software industry. The Trump administration is reportedly considering limiting or changing the program, which has made many H-1B workers fearful.
Washington Post, New York Times
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