Kansas man Adam Purinton accused of shooting Indian national indicted on hate crime charges

Adam Purinton, the man accused of killing an Indian national Srinivas Kuchibhotla in a February shooting, has been indicted on hate crime charges, the US justice department said on Friday (9 June).

US Navy veteran Purinton shot at two Indians in the Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe on 22 February. Witnesses said that he first shouted "get out of my country" at the men before attacking them.

In the shooting, he killed Kuchibhotla, who was an engineer, and injured his friend Alok Madasani. Both the men belonged to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and were living in the US for some years.

On Friday, the court announced indictment alleging that the 52-year-old shot at the Indian men because of their "actual and perceived" race, colour, religion and national origin. It also alleged that the army veteran carried out the crime after premeditation.

The indictment has also accused Purinton of violating federal firearms laws. But the justice department has yet to decide whether to give death penalty to him, the Guardian reported.

He has been kept in the Johnson County Jail on a bond of $2m (£1.6m) on murder and attempted murder charges.

At the bar in Olathe, Purinton had allegedly grew agitated with the men, who he thought were of Iranian origin. Soon after the attack, he drove 70 miles east to an Applebee's restaurant in Clinton, Missouri, where he confided in a bartender and told her that he had killed two Iranians.

He was arrested on 23 February after the bartender Sam Suida called 911 saying a man had come to her place and said he had done something "really bad" and that he was on the run.