Olathe shooter thought he shot Iranians

| March 1, 2017

Last week, Adam Purinton, a Navy veteran submariner, shot Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, Alok Madasani, 32, and Ian Grillot in a bar in Olathe, Kansas. Kuchibhotla died in the shooting. After the incident Purinton drove 70 miles to Henry County, Missouri and told a bartender at the local Applebee’s restaurant that he had just shot two Iranians. Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani are in fact Indians (dot not feather) who were employed by Garmin, the GPS people.

From the Associated Press;

Andy Berthelsen, a neighbor of Purinton’s for the past 15 years, told the AP that Purinton had become “a drunken mess” after his father’s death about 18 months ago. He said he doesn’t believe the shooting stemmed from hatred, and that it likely resulted from Purinton’s physical and mental deterioration.

Initially, police authorities told reporters that they didn’t think that Purinton’s Navy service contributed to PTSD thus causing him to shoot what he perceived as Iranians. I’m not sure how many submariners have contact with Iranians, anyway. But, you know, reporters are just so accustomed to blaming veterans’ PTSD for their bad behavior, they just can’t let it go, according to Fox 4;

When asked by reporters about the gun used in the shooting, the argument that led up to the shooting, or whether Purinton, a Navy veteran, suffered possible PTSD, the prosecutors and investigators said they could not comment.

Alcoholism can’t account for bad behavior, but PTSD fits nicely into the media’s narrative.

Category: Veterans in the news

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2/17 Air Cav

Talk about luck. He was shitfaced and drove 70 miles. Some guys get pulled over before they get 100 yards from the saloon. Well, he’ll sober up now, that’s for sure. He won’t have to worry about the death penalty. The last time someone was executed in Kansas was 1965.

Silentium Est Aureum

Smith and Hickock were the last two? Go figure.

David

Two others after them, June of the ’65.
Damn close guess though.

Herbert J Messkit

They were army deserters who went on a killing spree from Florida to Colorado. York and Latham

A Proud Infidel®™

Now he’s gonna be one more in the harem of Bubba & Thor and likely for life sans parole. Kansas DID reinstate the Death Penalty in the 1990s if I’m correct but has yet to execute a single condemned goblin. Blaming alcohol and PTSD? Sounds like a spur-of-the-moment Public Defender’s statement.

ex-OS2

“Alcoholism can’t account for bad behavior,”

Yep, ask Ted Kennedy, err, oops, my bad.

2/17 Air Cav

Jonn was being sarcastic, ex-OS2. Of course booze makes people do crazy things but when the media have a choice between blaming drink or PTSD, there is no decision to be made: it’s PTSD every time.

ex-OS2

My tongue-in-cheek comment backfired. I shall retreat to my corner.

I do however, agree with Jonn’s assertion.

timactual

Of course it’s the PTSD. It doesn’t take long.

That damn reveille bugle, every damn morning , before dawn. And all the yelling. Instant adrenaline rush in a half-asleep body. For 8 solid weeks!Every day, I tell you! It ain’t healthy! *sob*

Sorry about that. It’s the trauma, dontcha know.

Thunderstixx

It’s the same PTSD I got from teaching Marines how to snow ski…

O-4E

Somewhere in his mind it was A-ok to shoot Iranians though

David

as someone said years ago, alcohol doesn’t change anything fundamental in you, but it may reveal what is hidden within you. “I only did it because I was drunk” ranks right up there with “I only raped her because she dressed that way and made me do it” as bullshit excuses for being an asshole.

timactual

In Vino Veritas.

Smart buggers, those Romans.

Thunderstixx

Or…
The goats looked so sexy, if you are…
Oh never mind…

desert

And….your point is? You mean it isn’t? 😉 Geez, don’t tell “Mad Dog” that!

Mick

I’ve read several reports about this horrible incident, and it’s pretty clear to even the most casual observer that this was caused solely by a drunken idiot who picked up a weapon and shot two innocent people for no reason, killing one of them. Alcohol appears to have been a primary causal factor.

But PTSD? My dyin’ ass. Just because the perpetrator is a veteran doesn’t mean that he has a case of ‘The PTSD’, and I for one am getting to be quite sick of the media immediately leaping to that conclusion every time that a veteran is involved in an incident. The equation of ‘If a veteran = a case of The PTSD’ is a completely false narrative, and it needs to stop.

I’m also had more than enough of the media trying to weave monstrous incidents such as this into an over-arching fabricated indictment of President Trump’s current policies. From the AP article linked above:

‘Authorities have declined to discuss a possible motive for the attack or to say if they are investigating it as a hate crime. But the incident has raised concern about the treatment of immigrants, who feel targeted by President Donald Trump’s promises to ban certain travelers, build a wall along the Mexico border and put “America first.”‘

Huh? How does one’s mind work where one comes up with that kind of conclusion/assessment in the aftermath of this shooting, where there is now an apparent overt attempt by the media to falsely link a drunken idiot’s violent racist actions with POTUS? A drunken asshole shoots two innocent people because he thinks that they’re Iranians, and somehow POTUS is ultimately responsible?

This kind of bullshit from the media is irresponsible, and it’s dangerous.

Once again, the mind staggers.

desert

I hate to tell you, but being an Iranian, and him shooting him, IS NOT RACIST…! being an Iranian is a nationality, not a race! you been watching too much abc, cnn, and cbs!

The Other Whitey

The State shrink says I have the PTS. She must be wrong. I’m not a veteran, and everyone knows that PTS only comes from the military!

John D

The American Psychiatric Association now includes losing elections.

But only if you’re Democrat.

rgr769

PTSD, my ass. I didn’t know you could catch it while being cooped up in a submarine. Maybe he just had a delayed reaction to claustrophobia. We could call it delayed claustrophobic PTSD or DCPTSD. Now every criminal defendant wants to use it as a defense. That Pali-slamonazi terrorist leader of the Wymyns’ March convicted of immigration fraud plans to use it as a defense in her re-trial. I guess she caught if from her bombing attack in Israel. Meanwhile, her two victims couldn’t catch it–as they are dead!

Silentium Est Aureum

Nah, if anyone caught PTSD on a boat, it was because they either had to field day too much before ORSE, or they ran out of coffee on spec op and all they had left was green bug juice.

Boat Sailor

As a retired submariner, the stress of accessorizing your underway uniform (do I wear the blue poopy suit or the blue poopy suit) or trying to remember what day, and what time of day, it is, certainly can take their toll. THIS jackass is just stupid, and even Rickover didn’t have a cure for that!

Silentium Est Aureum

I never even bothered to care what day or time it was between securing the Maneuvering Watch outbound and inbound.

The only way I knew was pizza on Saturday night or sliders for lunch on Tuesdays underway.

26Limabeans

In the old WW2 movies everyone was half naked and covered in sweat.
Are modern boats air conditioned?

David

I keep trying to get that way but the wife tells me no….

11B-mailclerk

I am reliably told by a former sub navigator they are cooled by Nuclear-powered air conditioning. He said the only time he actually sweated was when someone announced “hot torpedo”.

Silentium Est Aureum

Only if you’re a Sonargirl.

Back aft, they claim to have AC, but damned if it doesn’t hit 130+ real fucking quick during Engineering drills.

timactual

No, there is no cure, but there is a way of stopping the spread.

Silentium Est Aureum

I’m not sure how many submariners have contact with Iranians, anyway.

I’ll take, “Zip point shit for $1000, Alex.”

Well, certainly less interaction than some small boat crews have had in the last couple of years.

And yeah, his prior service is about as relevant as a fucking football bat. Burn him.

valerie

Dunno about PTSD, but I once had to be in the same workplace with a really mean drunk: this guy would trip into red-faced hysteria over any innocent comment. So for me, when the locals started posting that the guy was a known drunk, I wondered if it was the alcohol.

The curious thing is that there was so much sympathy for him that nobody at work did much of anything about this, except that the men got very good at calming him down. I heard that he had been a very decent guy, until he had gone through a divorce and dived into the bottle. I never saw him at that stage of his life.

He had a seizure or stroke or something, and the company finally told him he could not come back to work until he got treatment, and he did.

I guess my point is that, people who know a person who has become an alcoholic due to trauma have a strong hesitancy to force them into treatment until they commit a real crime, not just drunk driving.

Carlton G. Long

“dot not feather”

You win the internet for today.

11B-mailclerk

Somehow, I do not think that story is going to help much. Did he think that up while still drunk, or did his lawyer?