Time magazine honoured Ian Grillot, the US national who jumped in the line of fire trying to save two Indians, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madani, in the racially-motivated Kansas shooting.
The magazine featured him in its ‘5 Heroes who Gave Us Hope in 2017’. The piece described him as the “bargoer who stepped in the line of fire”.
Grillot, who was 24 years old at the time of the attack, told Time, “I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t do anything … Without all the prayers and positive support from everybody, I wouldn’t be doing as well as I am right now. It has been a wonderful year and it’s a blessing to be alive.”
In the shooting, which took place in February, a 52-year-old white Navy veteran, Adam W Purinton, opened fire on two Indian engineers, Srinivas Kuchbhotla and Alok Madasani, in a bar in Oathe, Kansas. Purinton reportedly told them to “get out of my country”, before he attacked them. While Kuchibhotla succumbed to his wounds immediately, Madasani was grievously injured.
Grillot, who jumped in to save the two Indians, also suffered wounds on his hands and chest.
Kuchibhotla, from Hyderabad, and his colleague Madasani, from Warangal district in Telangana, were working as aviation programme managers at Garmin, an MNC. Madasani’s wife was expecting a child at the time of shooting.
The racially-motivated attack led to a widespread outcry, and the governor of Kansas even declared March 16 as "Indian-American Appreciation Day" to honour Kuchibhotla.
The Indian-American community in Houston, in a gesture to show its appreciation, raised $100,000 for Grillot and helped him buy a house in Kansas.
Purinton was later charged with first- degree murder and attempted murder.
The other heroes featured on the list include a chef who helped feel hundreds of Hurricane Maria victims in Puerto Rico, a Houston family that helped a woman deliver a baby in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and a California dog, which refused to abandon the livestock he guarded as the California wildfires raged.