Crowds that had gathered in Hyderabad, India on Tuesday for the funeral of a man killed in an apparently racially motivated shooting in Kansas last week protested the rise in attacks on minorities in the U.S., chanting and holding up signs that read, "#DownWithTrump" and "#DownWithRacism."
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a 32-year-old aviation engineer, was killed when a white navy veteran allegedly fired on him and two others at the Austin Bar and Grill in Olathe last Wednesday, yelling, "get out of my country." After he fled the scene and went to a nearby restaurant, he told a bartender he had shot "some Iranian people," leading the employee to call 911.
The other two victims--Kuchibhotla's friend, 32-year-old Alok Madasani, and 24-year-old American Ian Grillot, who attempted to intervene--survived.
Kuchibhotla's body was brought home Monday to his hometown. The previous weekend, party leaders in India staged similar protests in his memory.
His death comes as reports of hate crimes against minorities increase in the wake of President Donald Trump's election, as well as Trump's own crackdown on immigration. Kuchibhotla's widow, Sunaina Dumala, said she had expressed concern about the targeting of immigrants, but that her husband had told her not to worry, Al Jazeera reported.
Trump has yet to comment on the shooting. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said last week that linking the attack to Trump's xenophobic rhetoric and executive orders is "absurd."
