Hyderabadi shot dead in USA

Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an engineer from Hyderabad, was with his friend at a bar in Kansas when a man allegedly yelled “get out of my country” before shooting at them. Mr Kuchibhotla was killed. His friend, Alok Madasani, has been released from hospital. A witness who tried to intervene, Ian Grillot, was shot, but is expected to survive the attack.The shooter was a 51-year-old navy veteran.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted “I am shocked” and said she has promised assistance to Mr Kuchibhotla’s family including helping to bring the 32-year-old’s body back to Hyderabad.

He was catching up on Wednesday evening over a drink with his friend in Olathe, the fourth-largest town in Kansas with a population of about 130,000. Adam Purinton then started shouting at them calling them “Middle Eastern” and warning “get out of my country” before firing multiple rounds.

Mr Purinton managed to escape in the confusion that followed the shooting and was caught in Missouri over five hours later, where he told a staffer at a local bar that he had shot two Middle-Eastern men. The bartender called the police.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla worked at an American multinational that makes GPS systems in Kansas. He joined the company in 2014. His wife, Sunayana Dumala, works in a technology company in the area.

According to his Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, Mr Kuchibhotla graduated from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad in 2005. He then got his Master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, where he taught as a research assistant before graduating in 2007.