CROWD FUNDING

A friend of Srinivas Kuchibhotla from Rockwell Collins, an avionics company in Iowa where he had worked before moving to Garmin International in 2014, started a crowd-funding effort to raise money to support Srinivas's family hours after his death. By Friday night, Kavipriya Muthuramalingam's effort had led to collections of $342,578 - against an initial target of $150,000.

"He was kind-hearted, never abusive or confrontational and with friends from all ethnicities," Kavipriya told The Telegraph from Irvine, California, where she now lives. "We were a close knit group of friends. Think of the best guy you've met at college or work. That was him."

The crowd-funding page she started on GoFundMe says: "Srini was the kindest person you would meet, full of love, care and compassion for everyone. He never uttered a word of hatred, a simple gossip, or a careless comment. He was brilliant, well mannered and simply an outstanding human being."

Among the people who offered condolences on the page was Maggie Grillot, sister of Ian Grillot - the white American who stood up for Srinivas and his friend Alok Madasani when they were racially abused by the killer. Ian was hit by two bullets, on his chest and hand. One of the bullets pierced through to his spine, which is now fractured.

Maggie has also started a crowd-funding project to collect money to pay for Ian's medical expenses - she had collected $123,042 by Friday evening. "He tried standing up for two people who were being wrongly bullied," Maggie wrote in a Facebook post. "He's already worried about the medical bills this will create."

A third crowd-funding page was set up by a man who was not personally connected to the victims or their families but was upset about what appeared to be "a vicious hate crime."

"Madasani will likely face extensive medical bills and the family of Kuchibhotla will now have to deal with the death of their beloved son, both financially and emotionally," Brian Eric Ford wrote on the page.

"Let's send a message that we will support those who are targeted - and stand against all who wish to spread hate - by raising funds to help the victims of this horrendous act of senseless violence."

Ford said he planned to present the money raised to Garmin.