Adam Purinton, the Kansas man who yelled “get out of my country” before fatally shooting Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla at a bar in February 2017, has pleaded guilty to murder, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Two other people, Kuchibhotla’s friend Alok Madasani and Ian Grillot, a bystander who had tried to intervene, were injured in the attack that federal authorities called a hate crime.
A Navy veteran Purinton, 52, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder for the two men he injured. He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison on May 4. He still faces hate crime and firearm charges in court, the report said.
“Today’s guilty verdict will not bring back my Srinu,” Kuchibhotla’s widow, Sunayana Dumala, said in a statement, according to PTI. “But it will send a strong message that hate is never acceptable.”
The shooting took place just months after Donald Trump became the president, and had deepened fears that immigrants were facing persecution in the United States, especially after his campaign against them.
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