Sheriff deputies booked Adam Purinton, 51, just before 12:30 p.m. Friday on one count of premeditated murder and two counts of attempted murder.
The arrest wouldn’t have happened if weren’t for a single phone call Wednesday from a bartender at the Applebee’s at 700 S. Kansas Ave. in Clinton, Missouri.
The bartender called 911 at 11:35 p.m. and told the dispatcher that a man sitting at the bar told her he had done “something bad and he’s on the run from the police for shooting two people in Olathe.”
The man wearing a light blue jacket turned out to be Purinton, who prosecutors say is the sole gunman in Wednesday’s shooting at Austins Bar and Grill.
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Garret Bohnen came face-to-face with Purinton.
“He was kind of when I was there at least from what I heard he was keeping to keeping him to point,” Bohnen said.
Witnesses say Purinton began to direct racial slurs at Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani then Ian Grillot stepped in.
“Ian stood up for them while he was saying the racial slurs initially then the server got a manager then the dude got kicked out for saying those things since we don’t condone that at all,” Bohnen said.
Law enforcement say Purinton came back, shot the three men and took off across the state line.
Kuchibhotla died of his injuries.
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“He like made me promise not to call the police but there’s people in the building and I’m afraid he’s going to freak out if he’s the cops,” the bartender told dispatchers.
But when Clinton police showed up at 11:43 p.m. Purinton gave himself up without a fight.
Officers found Purinton in possession of an expired active duty Navy ID card. He had booked room 131 at the West Bridge Motel up the road from Applebee’s.
Purinton drove to Clinton, Missouri in a 2000 Chevy Silverado.
Olathe detectives arrived at 2:08 a.m. Thursday to question Purinton. At 9:58 a.m. Purinton was booked into the Henry County jail, later that afternoon he waved extradition to Johnson County.
Purinton is currently being held at the central booking facility at 101 N. Kansas Ave.
KS does not have hate crime statute-those charges have to be in fed court. If convicted in District Court as charged, Purinton faces Hard 50
— Johnson County KS DA (@JohnsonCoDA) February 24, 2017
Purinton is set appear in court on Monday at 1:30 p.m. He’s being held on a $2 million bond.
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
