US: Indian-American doctor Ramesh Kumar shot dead in Michigan, parents say not hate crime

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Ramesh was a graduate from the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi. (Image: henryford.com)

An Indian-American doctor was found dead in a car in Michigan, United States.Thirty-two-year-old Ramesh Kumar was shot dead in the passenger seat of the car parked in a rest area 90 miles of Detroit. While the police are investigating the case, the shooters remain unknown. Kumar’s family members have stated that they do not suspect anyone and have shirked the possibility of the shooting being a hate crime.

“We do not know (the reason for his murder). They (the police) are yet to find out,” his father Narendra Kumar, a former president of the influential American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), told PTI.

“We do not suspect anything. We do not think, it was a hate crime,” he said.

Ramesh Kumar worked in the Urology Department of the Henry Ford Hospital. When he did not turn up for work the next morning, his colleague from the hospital called his father to ask his whereabouts. After repeated calls and messages to Kumar, his father went to his apartment to find no one there. He then called the police who found the dead body after hours of searching. The body was identified as Rakesh’s on Thursday.

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Ramesh was a graduate from the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi. Police has not commented on the death yet. While this incident has not been classified as a hate crime, a surge in the same has been seen after Donald Trump took over as President of the United States. Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibotla was shot dead in February, while other attacks on Indian-Americans have been non-fatal.

Two others were killed in a spate of shootings over the past weekend in Detroit, according to local news. Between Saturday 9 pm and Sunday 4 am, the police reported several shootings. Some have been taken to the hospital while two others were declared dead.

Amidst continuing incidents of gun violence, last week, Republican Lee Chatfield introduced a bill which, if passed, would not require citizens to register the pistols they own. Under the current law, a person has to obtain a license to purchase, carry, possess, or transport a pistol in Michigan, local news media reported. Not only would the bill make the registration optional but it will also remove the $250 fine that accompanied possession of an unregistered pistol. According to Chatfield, this law, that is in force in only six of all the US states, is not acting as a deterrent.

First published on: 08-05-2017 at 08:22:23 am