Garmin aviation engineers shot

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172andyou

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Ugh, two Garmin aviation engineers shot, one killed, in racist attack. A third man also shot, non-critically, when attempting to save the Indian engineers. There is a gofundme for the would-be hero's medical expenses.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article134459444.html

https://www.gofundme.com/a645d-ians-road-to-recovery

A gofundme has also been set up for Srinivas's family:

https://www.gofundme.com/srinus-familyrecovery-support (now closed)

And Alok

https://www.gofundme.com/alok-madasani-medical-relief-fund (now closed)
 
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Zeldman said:
Would be hero?
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In my mind he qualifies as a hero. He may very well have saved other lives.

Bill Jennings said:
Ted, was this anywhere near you?
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Yes, right down the block from where I'm sitting. The engineers shot were friends who sat a few offices down from mine, we're in the same group. It is a very somber day here. Two genuinely great guys who I have nothing but good things to say about. Completely senseless.
 
This was in my home town, in my home town bar. Had my 20 year HS reunion there just a few months ago. Garmin International is across the street from my old HS.

Alleged shooter (a private pilot and ATC controller) claimed later to have shot two Middle Eastern men. They turned out to be Indian engineers working at Garmin.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article134459444.html
 
Zeldman said:
Would be hero?
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Yep, he's a facebook friend of mine (tho, I don't think I've ever met him in real life), but from all accounts he's an excellent stand-up guy. I don't know the engineers but I have friends at Garmin who I'm sure know them. Hits pretty close to home.

Come to think of it, my older brother may know the perp as well. They were in the same battle group doing the same jobs just on different cruisers.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
In my mind he qualifies as a hero. He may very well have saved other lives.
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Yes, fair point. I didn't mean to slight him in any way. Just meant "would be" in the sense that he failed to protect the two guys he intended to defend. But maybe the Indian who survived wouldn't have were it not for the hero. Maybe the gunman would have gone after more people were it not for the hero. You are correct to raise those kinds of possibilities.
 
I live a few blocks south of the shooting location. The same direction the guy ran afterward. Cops and helicopters were pretty thick last night.

I expect the comments the guy made will end up bringing this to national attention.
 
Ted, I'm very sorry for your loss, and the loss to these families. Sad.
 
172andyou said:
Yes, fair point. I didn't mean to slight him in any way. Just meant "would be" in the sense that he failed to protect the two guys he intended to defend. But maybe the Indian who survived wouldn't have were it not for the hero. Maybe the gunman would have gone after more people were it not for the hero. You are correct to raise those kinds of possibilities.
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In a world where the majority of people would do nothing, this guy did something. I would bet he is a real stand up person and now we should do something for him.

Racism is just useless.
 
A gofundme has also been set up for Srinivas's family:

https://www.gofundme.com/srinus-familyrecovery-support

As Srinivas was from India (and that's where his parents are), they have to handle transporting his body back to India for funeral ceremonies. Obviously this is a huge undertaking.

@172andyou if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you would edit your original post to include this gofundme link as well. I will be making contributions to both causes.
 
That just sucks.

Alcohol, guns, and misplaced anger don't mix.
 
Matthew said:
I live a few blocks south of the shooting location. The same direction the guy ran afterward. Cops and helicopters were pretty thick last night.

I expect the comments the guy made will end up bringing this to national attention.
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Worldwide attention
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Yes, right down the block from where I'm sitting. The engineers shot were friends who sat a few offices down from mine, we're in the same group. It is a very somber day here. Two genuinely great guys who I have nothing but good things to say about. Completely senseless.
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Just caught up with this... ugh... sorry Ted.

I can't abide racists like that... Goes against my morals overall, but in these cases, I can't help it. I honestly hope they fry him, we don't need his genes in the gene pool.
 
This is horrible. Hope the guy fries too. All the more reason to carry
 
I am currently in the U.K., where it's now 1 am. This did not hit the news here, which surprises me. Just catching up on a few things before shutting down and picked this up here on this thread. I am simply stunned. Visible minorities are already fearful. These two engineers were almost certainly not illegal immigrants. They were not Arab. And they may not even have been Muslim. But none of that matters for them now.

This is not a problem isolated to the USA. If we don't find a way to create constructive dialogue we are going to have growing problems in a lot of places.
 
luvflyin said:
Worldwide attention
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It's sometimes hard to tell what makes the news nationally/internationally and what doesn't. Being in fly-over country can mean we get overlooked in a lot of ways.

The GoFundMe account for the murder victim exceeded $150K in about 6 hrs. With just over 4k donations, that's an average of about $40 each. That's a lot of small donations, and that means a lot of people have heard about, and care about, this.

It's been a pretty strange day. Hearing all the police activity outside my house last night, finding out from Ted this morning that he had a connection of his own, then gradually hearing the details as the day went on. I haven't checked on the shooter's info, but there's a pretty good chance he lives very close to me as well. Ted probably remembers that the first time he and I met, we met for lunch at that same restaurant.
 
In what universe is that crime OK? Thou shalt not kill.
 
Sikhs get mistakenly associated with Muslims all the time in California. In addition to the inhumanity of the crime, it just goes to show a certain level of ignorance and stupidity among some people. I'm not implying it would have been okay if they were Muslim, but it is just ironic that those two Indians were very likely counter to Islam to begin with.
 
denverpilot said:
I honestly hope they fry him, we don't need his genes in the gene pool.
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You'll get no argument from me there. I'd like him so dead that when he shows up at the gates of hell, they don't know what to do with him.
 
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Sac Arrow said:
Sikhs get mistakenly associated with Muslims all the time in California. In addition to the inhumanity of the crime, it just goes to show a certain level of ignorance and stupidity among some people. I'm not implying it would have been okay if they were Muslim, but it is just ironic that those two Indians were very likely counter to Islam to begin with.
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Rip.you are spot on, tracing back in history, the seikhs religion was created to eradicate Muslims. They said they will not cut their hair, wear turban and carry sword until every Muslims have been eradicated. No, I am not anti-anyreligionwhatsowver and I am not defending seikhs religion as well, just staying historical facts. The turbans seikhs wears is actually whole lot different than what people in Afghanistan or middle eastern people would wear.
Very tragic, hope their family finds peace .

I don't care which religion you belong to, if you are racist..well you shud rot. Not fried in a chair, not go to sleep, rot, rot and rot till the time comes naturally.

Sad day for America.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
This is ****ing terrible. I am really sorry. More often than not, I can't believe this is the world we live in.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Sikhs get mistakenly associated with Muslims all the time in California. In addition to the inhumanity of the crime, it just goes to show a certain level of ignorance and stupidity among some people. I'm not implying it would have been okay if they were Muslim, but it is just ironic that those two Indians were very likely counter to Islam to begin with.
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One of my best friends is Sikh. I was his boss for a year and friend for the last 7 and he enlightened me a lot about some of the things he and his family have come up against. I could write a Nate-esk diatribe about what all he has taught me about our differences and similarities but the overall lesson from being friends with him is that ignorance is everyone's enemy. Some more than others.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
This is ****ing terrible. I am really sorry. More often than not, I can't believe this is the world we live in.
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If you live long enough, you'll know people who die. Some will die of old age, and you miss them. Some will die younger of illness, and you'll miss them. Some will die for stupid **** that was their own fault, and you'll miss them, and wish they hadn't brought it upon themselves. And some will die young for stupid **** like this, and you'll miss them even more because their deaths were so stupid. I wish I could say this was my first rodeo with this sort of thing, but it's not. A friend of mine was shot almost 10 years ago at the Virginia Tech massacre - April 16th, 2007. Her only crime was being in her German class, a couple months from graduation with a great job lined up. I've never been as sad as I was then, and I hope I'm never that sad again. This isn't as bad yet, and I don't think it will be for me. But I can't think of a less deserving person than Srinivas for what happened.

I spent the first 20 years or so of my life in New York City, where shootings were the norm. And when did my friends get shot? One in small town Virginia, and one in Olathe Kansas. Ironic.

I might be late to work tomorrow. Gotta finish up this wine.
 
Matthew said:
The GoFundMe account for the murder victim exceeded $150K in about 6 hrs. With just over 4k donations, that's an average of about $40 each. That's a lot of small donations, and that means a lot of people have heard about, and care about, this..
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American people are the most generous and caring people to help total strangers in their time of need.
 
I've lost family members from old age, pilots due to pilot issues, a couple Darwin awards, and an enormously close friend due to murder.
The last one, I cannot make sense of. It happened in 1995 and 20+ years later, I miss her and struggle with the need for closure and to somehow make sense of it. It is in the top 2 most painful things have had to deal with and I had to come to accept that this is something that I will never understand. Not to hijack too much but she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone didn't want a witness and she was walking by. That was it. Mom, Dad, Brother, and a **** ton of friends all lost her because of that. From the handful of losses I have had to deal with, this is the one where there is no closure because it is unwarranted.

"Papaw was 90 and it was his time" "So in So got sick" "He slipped and fell" Those are easy by comparison.

In this situation, it is wrong place at the wrong time, wrong religion at the wrong time, wrong skin color at the wrong time.

I feel for you man. This is a wound that time doesn't seem to heal.
 
There needs to be some public education program for racists. That incident is just as dumb as the guy who shot up the JCC in Overland park and managed to kill two methodists or the dumbo who shot up a Sikh temple in WI .

So sorry about your loss.
 
weilke said:
There needs to be some public education program for racists. That incident is just as dumb as the guy who shot up the JCC in Overland park and managed to kill two methodists or the dumbo who shot up a Sikh temple in WI .

So sorry about your loss.
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no amount of public education program would cure a (add adjectives here, too many ** comes to mind) killer
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
"Papaw was 90 and it was his time" "So in So got sick" "He slipped and fell" Those are easy by comparison.

In this situation, it is wrong place at the wrong time, wrong religion at the wrong time, wrong skin color at the wrong time.

I feel for you man. This is a wound that time doesn't seem to heal.
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It doesn't. You still think about it years later, as you well know. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think about Maxine (my friend who was killed 10 years ago). What's always been hardest with her was the lost potential. I think of all I've lived the past 11 years (she was a year younger than me) and wish she could have lived it, too. Srinivas was a few years older than me, so that part doesn't kick in quite so much.

You don't get over it, you get on with it.
 
WannFly said:
no amount of public education program would cure a (add adjectives here, too many ** comes to mind) killer
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No kidding. Those ignorant jackasses manage to be ignorant even in the execution of their crimes.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
One of my best friends is Sikh. I was his boss for a year and friend for the last 7 and he enlightened me a lot about some of the things he and his family have come up against. I could write a Nate-esk diatribe about what all he has taught me about our differences and similarities but the overall lesson from being friends with him is that ignorance is everyone's enemy. Some more than others.
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I gave those up for lent. But Sikhs were serious badasses during WWII. There's some fascinating history reading there if you're into such things.

You didn't want to be in the Allies way if the Sikh unit was with them. Throat slit at night while you slept was the usual outcome...

WannFly said:
no amount of public education program would cure a (add adjectives here, too many ** comes to mind) killer
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Nope. Usually not.
 
One hard part is that we try to figure out why. We feel like there has to be a reason, and sometimes there just is no reason and that's hard to accept.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I spent the first 20 years or so of my life in New York City, where shootings were the norm. And when did my friends get shot? One in small town Virginia, and one in Olathe Kansas. Ironic.
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I had a co-worker lose his son in the Newtown massacre and I sang at the funeral of a second boy who died there. The family used to live in Queens and moved out of the city to be 'safe' and have a nice place to raise their kids.

I moved out to KC a few years later only to have one of my longest friends hold a 14 year old boy as he bled out in the parking lot of the Kansas City Jewish Community center because of another racist POS. She still has her blood-stained shoes from that day.

I've not lost any family or close friends to gun violence but I've been close enough.
 
labbadabba said:
I had a co-worker lose his son in the Newtown massacre and I sang at the funeral of a second boy who died there. The family used to live in Queens and moved out of the city to be 'safe' and have a nice place to raise their kids.

I moved out to KC a few years later only to have one of my longest friends hold a 14 year old boy as he bled out in the parking lot of the Kansas City Jewish Community center because of another racist POS. She still has her blood-stained shoes from that day.

I've not lost any family or close friends to gun violence but I've been close enough.
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There are ironies of that sort all over, and in every realm. I think of Senator Inhofe's son who crashed his MU-2 on the flight home from training when he lost an engine and handled it poorly. He undoubtedly upgraded to the MU-2 from his 421 in part because he thought the MU-2 would be more reliable and safer. But if he'd had an engine failure under the same conditions in the 421, he probably would've landed it just fine. Of course, ultimately it's speculation, you don't know. But in NYC you have a better chance of getting hit by a car and there are plenty of other crimes that kill or injure plenty of people, it just so happens that I didn't personally know any of the folks affected in those crimes.

Personally, I try to make decisions that I think will keep my family and me safe, but realize that some freak accident could happen any day without warning. You just never know. You can't go through life worrying about it, because then you just won't live.

I have a lot of other thoughts on this, but I will say that you can find a lot of good people trying to help in this situation. As Mr. Rogers once said:

Mr. Rogers said:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
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Zeldman said:
American people are the most generous and caring people to help total strangers in their time of need.
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The GoFundMe has now exceeded $300k for Srinivas, and is close to $140k for Ian. It's a positive light.

Wish I knew someone with a Gulfstream I could borrow. The trip back to India I'm sure can't be cheap.
 
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