Indian American Woman From California Shot Dead in Drug-gang Shootout in Mexico
- Anjali Ryot, described as a social media influencer, was in Tulum with her husband Utkarsh Shrivastava, to celebrate her 30th birthday.
An Indian American woman from California was one of two tourists killed last week in the apparent crossfire of a drug-gang shootout in Mexico. Anjali Ryot, described as a social media influencer, was in Tulum with her husband Utkarsh Shrivastava to celebrate her 30th birthday, her father K. D. Ryot told the Press Trust India. He told the news agency that she was shot dead in the Caribbean coast resort after the couple had bought ice cream from a stall following their dinner. He was informed of his daughter’s death by his son Ashish, who currently lives in Chicago. Shrivastava called Ashish Ryot to inform him of the Oct. 20 shooting.
K.D. Ryot, a former director in Himachal Pradesh’s Animal Husbandry Department told the PTI that it was difficult for him to believe that his daughter is no more. He told the news agency that she’d spent three-four months with them in Solan last year after the coronavirus outbreak.
While various news outlets have reported that Ryot lived in San Jose, the Mercury News, citing recent records, notes that Ryot has lived in Santa Clara with her husband since 2017.
Their next-door neighbors in Santa Clara told Mercury News “they hardly knew the couple, but in brief interactions found them to be friendly and social, often going out for bicycle rides or throwing get-togethers in their backyard.”
A post in Ryot’s now-private Instagram account showed her lounging and smiling on a seaside pier in Tulum. It listed her as a travel blogger from Himachal Pradesh living in California.
Ryot came to California in 2012 to do her masters in electronics from San Jose State University, her father told PTI. She has been working as a senior software engineer with Linkedin since July this year. She previously worked as a software engineer with Yahoo. Her Facebook account notes that she was also a former teaching assistant at San Jose State University.
Shrivastava, who’s originally from Jabalpur, currently works as a senior manager with Netflix, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Before moving to California, Ryot completed her B Tech from Jaypee University of Information Technology (JUIT), in Waknaghat. According to her Facebook page, she attended St Luke’s in Solan and Sacred Heart High School in Dharamshala.
Three other tourists from Germany and the Netherlands were wounded in the shooting at a street-side eatery that has some outdoor tables, right off Tulum’s main strip, according to The Associated Press. The other tourist was identified as German national Jennifer Henzold, 35.