DigitalVision/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) — An organization representing the Indian-American community of Houston honored the man who was shot last month while trying to protect two Indian men who were targeted in a suspected hate crime.
India House Houston, a non-profit organization based in Houston, Texas, called Ian Grillot a “genuine hero” and awarded him with $100,000 on Saturday for intervening in a deadly shooting at a bar in Kansas.
“It is not always that we get an opportunity to meet a genuine hero — a person who risks his life for another, a person who takes a bullet for a complete stranger, a man who reminds us of the promise of America and its greatness. Ian Grillot is such a man,” the organization said in a video posted on its Facebook page on Monday.
The organization honored Grillot during its 14th Annual Gala on Saturday. India House Houston said the money would help him to buy a house.
Grillot, 24, was shot while trying to stop a gunman who witnesses said yelled “get out of my country” before shooting two Indian men at a bar in Olathe, Kansas, last month, killing one.
Adam Purinton, a 51-year-old Navy veteran and former air traffic controller, is being charged with murder and attempted murder in the shooting that killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla and wounded Alok Madasani, both 32-year-old employees of the technology company Garmin.
Authorities are investigating if the shooting was a hate crime.
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