Telangana’s Information Technology Minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday met the family of an Indian man who was shot dead in an apparent hate crime in Kansas. Thirty-two-year-old Srinivas Kuchibhotla had been shot dead by a United States Navy Veteran at a bar in Kansas, while his friend Alok Madasani was injured. Rama Rao met Kuchibhotla’s parents K Madhusudhana Sastry and Parvata Vardhini, The News Minute reported.

Rao, who is Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son, said, “It is an unfortunate incident. No parents should undergo this kind of grief,” The New Indian Express reported. “I lived in the US for eight years, but never faced such situation. It will now become a trend. It is my request to all the Indians in the US to stay safe and hope positive environment will develop there soon.” Rao added that Kuchibotla’s body is expected to arrive in Hyderabad on Monday.

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Kuchibhotla’s death has raised fears among his family and other immigrants living in the United States. His wife Sunayana Dumala had earlier said she had expressed fears about a spate in violence in the US but that her husband had always reassured her. She had added that before she returned to the US after her husband’s funeral, she needed answers from the US government. “What are they going to do to stop this hate crime?”

Witnesses said the man who had shot Kuchibhotla, Adam Purinton, had assumed the men were “Arabs” and had yelled “Get out of my country” before shooting them. However, Trump’s staff have called it “absurd” to connect the shooting to any of the president’s remarks about immigrants and Muslims. “Obviously, any loss of life is tragic, but I’m not going to get into, like, to suggest that there’s any correlation I think is a bit absurd. So I’m not going to go any further than that,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

The Indian government has expressed its shock over the crime and asked to be kept informed about the investigation into it.