A man shows a cellphone picture of Alok Madasani, an engineer who was injured in Wednesday's shooting, in front of Madasani's father, Jaganmohan Reddy, in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
A man shows a cellphone picture of Alok Madasani, an engineer who was injured in Wednesday’s shooting, in front of Madasani’s father, Jaganmohan Reddy, in the Indian city of Hyderabad.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) – Less than a week after Adam Purinton allegedly opened fire on Alok Madasani and Srinivas Kuchibhotla, thousands of strangers from across the globe have opened their wallets to the victims’ families.
Three separate GoFundMe accounts have collectively raised more than $1 million in donations, which pledge to support the families’ medical expenses from the event, which left the aforementioned Kuchibhotla dead. One of the survivors, Alok Madasani, told The New York Times that before the shooting, the man sitting near Madasani and his friend Srinivas Kuchibhotla began addressing them with pointed questions.
“He asked us what visa are we currently on and whether we are staying here illegally,” Madasani told the paper on Friday. The Times notes Madasani and his friend were educated in the U.S. and working legally at Garmin, which has an office in town. “We didn’t react. People do stupid things all the time. This guy took it to the next level.”
The FBI is now investigating the incident as a possible federal hate crime.
“We’ve set up this fund to help them with the funeral expenses and other ongoing grief / recovery support costs,” reads the GoFundMe page that pledges to send the donations to Kuchibhotla’s family. “This includes the very expensive process of carrying his mortal remains back to India, so his parents can say goodbye one last time to their beloved son.”
In the US, donations have come from all 50 states and more than 20 different nations. More than 18,000 people from across the globe have donated thus far.
