Hyd engineer shot in Kansas was ‘top of his class kind of guy’, say friends

Friends remember Srinivasa Kuchibhotla as a kind, soft-spoken man who never uttered a word of hatred.

Srinivasa Kuchibhotla was shot dead in Kansas after he was told, "Get out of my country," on Wednesday. Originally from Hyderabad, Srinivasa was an aviation engineer at the Olathe-based technology company Garmin.

The 32-year-old had married in October 2012. His wife Sunayana Dumala has listed Intouch Solutions as her employer. He studied electronics and power systems and in 2005, he graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad. He earned a Master's degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, where he also worked as a teaching and research assistant before graduating in 2007.

Kansas Star claims that it tried reaching out to the family and friends. However, friends said that they were waiting for permission from the family before speaking to the media. Srinivasa has been described as a top-of-his class kind of guy. He was the top pick in 2007 for a software engineer's post at Rockwell Collins. He moved up to a senior systems engineer before taking up a job with Garmin in 2014". He was a low maintenance employee," his former manager Rod Larson told the Star.

A GoFundMe account has been set up by a family member to help the family transport the body back to India. His friends say that he was the kindest man and never would have uttered a word of hatred. According to his Facebook page, he and his wife hail from Hyderabad.

Srinivasa's colleague Alok Madasani, who was also shot at has now been discharged by the hospital. Madasani studied at the Vasavi engineering college in Hyderabad. The Indian embassy has sent two officials of the Indian Consulate in Houston to Kansas to help the victims' families.

"Consul Ravindra Joshi and Vice Consul Harpal Singh rushed to Kansas to assist shooting victim," the consulate said in a tweet.

OneIndia News