Achutha N Reddy was an alumnus of Osmania Medical College and had been practising in Kansas since 1989. The alleged killer of Reddy was identified Umar Rashid Dutt.
WASHINGTON – An Indo-American doctor was stabbed to death in the US state of Kansas and police have arrested a 21-year-old suspect on charges of first-degree murder, officials said on Thursday.
But there was no official word on the motive behind the murder or if the incident was a possible hate crime.
Police identified the victim as Achutha N Reddy, a 57-year-old psychiatrist hailing from Nalgonda, who died after being stabbed multiple times near the Holistic Psychiatric Services building on Carriage Parkway in Wichita at 7.22 pm local time on Wednesday.
The alleged assailant was identified Umar Rashid Dutt who, the name suggested, could be from South Asia.
When police arrived on the scene, they found Reddy in an alley behind the building.
“A short time after officers arrived, at approximately 7:40, they were dispatched to a suspicious character call at the Wichita Country Club,” said Lt Todd Ojile of the Wichita police department. “The security guard at the country club observed an individual sitting in the car in the parking lot with blood on (him).”
Officers took the suspect, who was subsequently identified as Dutt, into custody. He is being held on charges of first-degree murder.
The police have said Dutt was a patient of the doctor and had been seen entering the premises. Dutt and Reddy were seen going into the building together, Ojile was quoted as saying by The Wichita Eagle. Dutt then left and came back. The officer manager told police she heard a disturbance and found Dutt assaulting Reddy.
Reddy tried to leave but Dutt followed him and allegedly stabbed him numerous times in the alley.
Reddy was an alumni of Osmania Medical College, from which he graduated in 1986. He later moved to the US and completed his residency in psychiatry from the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita, and then began practising in 1989. He was running the Holistic Psychiatric Services in Wichita, apart from being affiliated to several hospitals in the area.
He is survived by his wife Beena and their three children Radha, Lakshmi and Vishnu, besides his parents Bhadra and Parijata Reddy.
There was no information from authorities if the crime was hate-motived, like the shooting of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, also from Andhra Pradesh, in February. Kuchibhotla was shot and killed in Olathe, Kansas, by a man who had yelled at him to go back to his country before opening fire.
