Indian Student Shot Dead in Kansas Restaurant, Family in Telangana Awaits Answers

A 25-year-old University of Missouri-Kansas City student from India was fatally shot in the back as he ran from a would-be robber at the restaurant where he worked, a man working at the restaurant said Saturday. Kansas City police identified the victim as Sharath Koppu. He was shot about 7 p.m. Friday at J's Fish and Chicken Market near 54th and Prospect. Men at a nearby motel said they heard five gunshots from the direction of the restaurant. Police released a brief video of the suspect inside the restaurant moments before the shooting and asked for the community's assistance in identifying him.

Koppu was a software engineer who came to the United States in January to pursue his master's degree, wrote a cousin who established a GoFundMe account on Saturday in Koppu's name. The account, created to pay for Koppu's body to be returned to India, raised $25,000 in three hours. Man shot inside KC restaurant on Prospect has died, police say A man suffered fatal wounds in a shooting Friday evening in the 5400 block of Prospect Avenue. The man was shot inside J's Fish and Chicken Market, police said. Suspect information was not available. The victim died at a hospital. "He had the same dreams like everyone else, to make it BIG in the land of opportunity. He had a great sense of humor and always made people laugh and was always eager to lend a helping hand," wrote the cousin, Raghu Chowdavaram, in the description of the GoFundMe account. "Little did anybody know that life is about to take a big unfortunate turn on a fateful day of July 6th 2018."

On Saturday afternoon, the restaurant remained closed during normal business hours, with corrugated metal concealing its windows. A sticker on the front door announced surveillance cameras are in place, presumably as a means to deter crime.

The worker at the restaurant didn't wish to be named, but he described to The Star what he saw on extended surveillance footage that has not been made public.The suspect, wearing a brown shirt with white stripes, demanded money and pulled out a gun."He's scared he's going to die," the man said of Koppu.
As people ducked or ran for cover around him, Koppu bolted directly away from the suspect, toward the back of the store.
"(Koppu) ran, so he shot him" in the back, the man said, shaking his head. He said Koppu didn't know how to work the register.
Koppu died shortly after being taken to a hospital.

sad, very sad: never start running/make swift move, when being gun-threatened.

Horrible!