Students, faculty and staff gather for healing
University of Missouri-Kansas City students, faculty and staff gathered on the campus quad to mourn and offer each other support after a shooting last week in Olathe left one man dead and two others injured, including a UMKC alumnus.
They shared thoughts, prayer and moments of silence about the Feb. 22 violence that is being investigated as a hate crime and receiving attention around the globe. According to witnesses, a gunman yelled “get out of my country” before killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla and injuring his Garmin International co-worker and best friend Alok Madasani, who graduated in 2008 from UMKC with a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Both are natives of India.
“We want to offer our condolences,” said Zaheer Mohammed Siddique, president of the UMKC Indian Student Association that organized the event, which drew about 100 people. He spoke about Kuchibhotla, whose body was returned to India; about Madasani, whose name is on a cricket trophy at UMKC’s Swinney Recreation Center; and about Ian Grillot, a bystander who was shot while attempting to chase down the gunman. Adam W. Purinton of Olathe is charged in Johnson County District Court with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
“(Grillot) is one of the good people who make us feel safe here,” Mohammed Siddique said.
Kevin Truman, dean of the UMKC School of Computing and Engineering, expressed his sadness about the shooting and affirmed how welcoming people from diverse backgrounds is the norm — not the exception — in Kansas City, and at Kansas City’s university. Students from 23 countries attend the School of Computing and Engineering, and many, like Madasani, stay to work and build their lives in Kansas City.
Ghulam Chaudhry, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, had Madasani in three courses and called him polite and respectful. Madasani was released from the hospital and spoke at a vigil Feb. 26, calling the shooting that injured him “an isolated incident that doesn’t reflect the true spirit of Kansas, the Midwest and the United States.” Chaudhry echoed those sentiments.
“We are all saddened by this, but you don’t have to be scared and you don’t have to live in fear,” Chaudhry said. “Thousands of people around the world have rejected this act. We’re here to support each other.”