In case you forgot, this is the America where two guys in a bar can get shot just for being brown.
In Kansas, a man has been charged with murder after he approached two men he believed to be "Middle Eastern" at a bar, shouted racial slurs at them and told them to "get out of my country" before he shot them.
First-degree murder charge filed in possible hate crime shooting at Austins bar in Olathe
51-year-old Adam W. Purinton is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Srinivas Kuchibhotla at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe on Wednesday night. Witnesses say they heard Purinton yell "get out of my country" before shooting Kuchibhotla and 32-year-old Alok Madasani -- both originally from India. Another bar patron, 24-year-old Ian Grillot, was shot when he tried to intervene.
Kuchibhotla died at the hospital. Madasani and Grillot were injured but in stable condition.
Purinton fled the scene, but was arrested five hours later, 80 miles away at an Applebee's in Clinton, Missouri. According to The Kansas City Star, he told a bartender that he needed a place to hide out because had just "killed two Middle Eastern men." The bartender called the cops.
In addition to the murder charge, Purinton is charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Federal law enforcement officials said that the investigation is still ongoing. It is apparently too early to determine if the shooting was a bias-motivated hate crime in violation of the victims' civil rights.
I may jumping the gun calling it a hate crime, but that seems pretty obvious.
More here: Charges filed in Olathe Austins shooting; suspect waives extradition to Johnson County
