Ian Grillot pictured in his hospital bed after his intervention in a Kansas bar shooting.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Ian Grillot, a 24-year-old American, is being hailed as a hero after he tried to stop the shooting of two Indian engineers who were thought to be Middle Eastern by their attacker. Grillot was shot in the hand and in the chest during the incident and has since been recovering at the hospital.
Adam Purinton, a 51-year-old Navy veteran, is alleged to have pulled the trigger, but not before, Grillot said, he shouted racial abuse at engineers Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani.
“I was just doing what anyone should have done. It’s not about where he’s from, or ethnicity. We’re all humans,” Grillot was later quoted as saying from his hospital bed. He said he ducked under a table when the first shots rang out, emerging from underneath when the shooter emptied the magazine from his gun.
Grillot said Alok Madasani, who survived the shooting, visited him on Thursday in the hospital. “The gentleman who survived came to meet me. His wife was five months pregnant. It is terrible to lose a friend,” he said, adding, “It put the biggest smile on my face in the last 24 hours.”
Srinivas Kuchibhotla died in the shooting on Wednesday night. He worked at an American multinational Garmin in Kansas and survived by his wife, Sunayana Dumala, who also works in the area. He was 32.
