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Latest: Donations top $1M for Kansas bar attack victims

This Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, photo provided by the Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Olathe, Kan., shows Adam Purinton, who has been charged with murder and attempted murder in the Wednesday night shooting at a crowded bar in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe. One man was killed and two were injured in the shooting. (Johnson County Sheriff's Office via AP)
Original Publication Date February 25, 2017 - 5:05 AM

OLATHE, Kan. - The Latest on a deadly shooting at a Kansas bar that some witnesses said was racially motivated (all times local):

5 p.m.

GoFundMe sites for the families of an Indian man who was killed and two men who were injured in a shooting at a Kansas bar have raised more than $1 million combined.

The four sites were set up to help relatives of Srinivas Kuchibhotla pay for expenses in the wake of his shooting death Wednesday at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe (oh-LAY'-thuh), as well as assist the families of the other victims.

Kuchibhotla's friend and co-worker for GPS device-maker Garmin, Alok Madasani, was wounded. Another man, Ian Grillot, was shot when he tried to stop the gunman.

A GoFundMe spokeswoman said in an email Saturday that the outpouring to the four funds involves more than 26,000 donations from all U.S. states, the District of Columbia and 39 countries.

The suspected gunman, Adam Purinton, remained jailed Saturday on charges of murder and attempted murder.

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1:50 p.m.

A suburban Kansas City sports bar has reopened, three days after a man shot two Indian men and a third man who tried to intervene, in what some believe was a hate crime.

Brandon Blum, a co-owner of Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe (Oh-LAY-thuh), Kansas, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the bar has been a neighbourhood fixture for 30 years and that everybody's upset by Wednesday night's attack. Patrons who trickled in for lunch Saturday often hugged each other and staff.

Blum declined to discuss the attack in further detail or to say whether the local man charged in the attack, Adam Purinton, was a regular. One of the Indian men was killed and the other two men were wounded. Purinton faces murder and attempted murder charges.

Authorities have not said they are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, but the father of the wounded Indian man said he believes it was one.

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11:25 a.m.

A longtime neighbour of a Kansas man accused of shooting three people at a bar says the man was a heavy drinker who deteriorated after his father died about 18 months ago.

Andy Berthelsen said Saturday that Adam Purinton became "a drunken mess" and bounced among menial jobs over the past year.

Berthelsen says that in his 15 years as Purinton's neighbour in Olathe (Oh-LAY-thuh), Kansas, he doesn't recall Purinton making racist remarks or talking about politics.

He says Purinton and his father were close and that the father died within weeks of being diagnosed with cancer.

Witnesses said Purinton yelled at two Indian men to "get out of my country" before opening fire Wednesday evening. One of the men died and the other was wounded, along with another bar patron.

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8:45 a.m.

One of two immigrants from India who were shot in a suburban Kansas City bar says the attacker was asking about their visa status shortly before the attack, which some have suggested was a hate crime.

Alok Madasani told The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/2lC5YZY ) that while he and Srinivas Kuchibhotla were on the patio of the Olathe, Kansas, bar Wednesday evening, the man asked what type of visa they had and whether they were in the country illegally. They were not.

Madasani says he went to get a manager, but when he got back to the patio, the man was already being escorted out.

Authorities say the man, 51-year-old Adam Purinton, returned with a gun and shot Madasani, Kuchibhotla and third man who intervened, killing Kuchibhotla. Purinton was arrested hours later in Missouri and is jailed on murder and attempted murder charges.

Madasani was treated and released while the other victim, Ian Grillot, remains hospitalized.

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This item has been corrected to reflect that Madasani and Kuchibhotla were in the country legally, not illegally.

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1:13 a.m.

A neighbourhood bar in suburban Kansas City where one man was killed and two others were injured is scheduled to reopen even as the community tries to recover from an attack that witnesses said was racially motivated.

Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas, will reopen Saturday. It has been closed since the shooting Wednesday evening while patrons watched a Kansas-TCU basketball game.

Witnesses told investigators Adam Purinton yelled at two Indian men to "get out of my country" before opening fire. One man, 32-year-old Srinivas Kuchibhotla, died. Two other men, 32-year-old Alok Madasani and 24-year-old Ian Grillot, were injured. Madasani was released from the hospital while Grillot remains hospitalized.

Purinton was arrested early Thursday at a restaurant bar in Clinton, Missouri. He is jailed on murder and attempted murder charges.

News from © The Associated Press, 2017
The Associated Press

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