Indian man among 3 killed in US bank shooting

Team Udayavani, Sep 7, 2018, 9:42 AM IST

New York: A 25-year-old Indian man was among three people killed when a gunman opened fire in a bank building in the US city of Cincinnati before police shot him dead on Thursday.

Pruthviraj Kandepi, who belonged to Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district, was killed when 29-year-old Omar Enrique Santa Perez from the town of North Bend, Ohio, opened fire at the headquarters for the Fifth Third Bank near Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, police said.

India’s Consul General in New York Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty told news agency PTI that the consulate is in touch with the police, Mr Kandepi’s family as well as members of the community.

An official of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) said that Mr Kandepi was working with the bank as a consultant. Arrangements were being made to send his body to India, he added.

The two other victims were identified as 48-year-old Luis Felipe Calderon and 64-year-old Richard Newcomer.

Five people were shot, some multiple times, in the incident, they said, adding that the gunman was killed in a shootout with the police.

According to Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, officers responded to a 911 call at around 9:10 am local time about an “active shooter” at the bank.

The gunman was shot multiple times as four police officers approached him and he died at the scene.

He had a pistol and more than 200 rounds of ammunition, Mr Isaac said, adding that the gunman was not a former or current employee of the bank. He had gone to several businesses before going to the bank, he said.

Perez had opened fire in the building’s loading dock before continuing into the lobby area and firing more shots, Mr Isaac told reporters at a televised press conference.