He Became a Hate Crime Victim. She Became a Widow.
“And we always wondered, how safe?”
Ms. Dumala had wondered how the couple fit into this new narrative, if they should move to a different country,
and once even asked her husband, “Are we doing the right thing of staying in the United States of America?”
Ms. Dumala shared what is now the most dreadful chapter of her life seated at the foot of the king-size bed where they once slept.
“We’ve read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening,” Ms. Dumala said at a news conference
in February at the headquarters of Garmin, where Mr. Kuchibhotla worked as a senior aviation systems engineer.
“Bye,” he said, hurrying past her, a casual farewell that would come to haunt Ms. Dumala for its brevity and finality.
The police officer — who was stopped by Ms. Dumala from uttering Mr. Purinton’s name — also said that it appeared the shooting was premeditated.