KANSAS: A US Navy veteran who reportedly told an Indian software engineer to “get out of my country” before shooting him dead and wounding two others in a bar in Kansas last year has been sentenced to life in prison, the local prosecutor said.
Under the sentence, Adam Purinton, 52, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March, will not be eligible for parole for 50 years, District Attorney Steve Howe said in a statement on Friday. Johnson County District Court Judge Charles Droege also sentenced Purinton to an additional 165 months on each of two other charges stemming from the wounding of two other men, Howe said. The February 2017 murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, in a bar in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe drew international attention as part of a wave of attacks across the country against blacks, Jews, Muslims and other groups following the 2016 election of US. President Donald Trump, who had made a crackdown on illegal immigration part of his platform. Kuchibhotla was a legal US president as the holder of a work visa. The Kansas City Star newspaper reported that at least one bystander said Purinton shouted “get out of my country” before opening fire on Kuchibhotla and two other men who were having after-work drinks at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe.