Indians in US raise $100,000 for Kansas shooting hero Ian Grillot | World News - Hindustan Times
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Indians in US raise $100,000 for Kansas shooting hero Ian Grillot

Hindustan Times, Washington | ByYashwant Raj
Mar 27, 2017 01:32 AM IST

The money, raised entirely by the India American community, is intended to help Grillot, 24, buy a house.

Indian Americans have presented Ian Grillot, who suffered multiple bullet wounds in the Kansas shooting, with a check of $100,000, calling him a “genuine hero” who “risks his life for another, and takes a bullet for a complete stranger”.

A very moved Grillot said after accepting the check, “I don’t know if I could’ve lived with myself if I wouldn’t have stopped or attempted to stop the shooter because that would’ve been completely devastating.”(Facebook)
A very moved Grillot said after accepting the check, “I don’t know if I could’ve lived with myself if I wouldn’t have stopped or attempted to stop the shooter because that would’ve been completely devastating.”(Facebook)

“It is not every day that one meets a genuine hero — a person who risks his life for another, and takes a bullet for a complete stranger,” said Jiten Agarwal, a leading Indian American, at an event in Houston, Texas, on Friday where the check was given to Grillot.

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“For he that sheds his blood for me today is my brother,” he added, using a variation of Shakespeare’s “For he today that sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother”, according to a statement on Facebook posted by India House, a community centre run by Indian Americans.

“Ian Grillot is a man who reminds us of the promise of America and its greatness,” said Agarwal.

A very moved Grillot said after accepting the check, “I don’t know if I could’ve lived with myself if I wouldn’t have stopped or attempted to stop the shooter because that would’ve been completely devastating.

“I do now have a very powerful message and if I can help empower people and spread hope and love, then why not?”

The money, raised entirely by the Indian American community, is intended to help Grillot, 24, buy a house.

Grillot was shot in the arm and the chest when he tried to stop Adam Purinton who had opened fire on two Indian engineers at a bar in Olathe, Kansas in February, killing one of them, Srinivas Kuchibhotla.

The American was instantly hailed as a hero in India and in the US as a symbol of the larger and inclusive America that had seemed overrun by bigots, Islamophobes and immigrant-haters in the aftermath of the election of President Donald Trump.

A grateful India invited Grillot to visit, in a message from external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj conveyed to him by the Indian counsel-general in Houston, Anupam Ray.

And Indian Americans, a tiny but prosperous community of 3 million, raised money for him to help him buy a house, as an expression of their appreciation for what he had done, an initiative that was encouraged by the Indian counsel-general.

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