3 students of Palestinian descent shot in Vermont, CNN says suspect held

VERMONT – A suspect was arrested in the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont, CNN reported early on Nov 27.

Burlington police are investigating the incident as a suspected hate-motivated crime.

A man with a pistol shot and wounded the three victims on the street near the University of Vermont on the evening of Nov 25 and then ran away, the police said earlier.

CNN reported that a suspect, identified as Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested on the afternoon of Nov 26.

Burlington police and the Mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about an arrest.

Two of the victims are US citizens and the third is a legal US resident, all 20 years old, police said.

Two of the men were wearing a keffiyeh, the black-and-white square chequered scarf that has become a badge of Palestinian identity, at the time of the attack, police said.

The victims were reported to have been speaking Arabic when attacked, according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a non-profit pro-Palestinian advocacy organisation. It added that the assailant opened fire on the three men after he began to shout at and harass them.

Police say he fired four shots without saying a word.

In an earlier statement, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said: “In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime.”

Mayor Miro Weinberger said it is chilling that “there is an indication that the shooting could have been motivated by hate”.

The three men were identified by their families as Mr Hisham Awartani, a student at Brown University in Rhode Island; Mr Kinnan Abdel Hamid, a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania; and Mr Tahseen Ahmed, who attends Trinity College in Connecticut.

Two of the students were visiting the home of the third student’s family in Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Police said all three remained under medical care on Nov 26, two with gunshot wounds in their torsos and one shot in the lower extremities.

“Two are stable, while one has sustained much more serious injuries,” they said.

The students’ families had earlier called on US officials to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

“We call on law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation, including treating this as a hate crime. We will not be comfortable until the shooter is brought to justice,” the families of the students said on Nov 26 in a statement circulated by the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a pro-Palestinian non-profit organisation.

The shooting comes as the US is witnessing a surge in Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents, including violent assaults and online harassment, since

the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted on Oct 7.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Nov 26 called on the US authorities to hold those responsible to account.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a US-based advocacy organisation, also called on state and federal law enforcement to investigate the shooting as a hate crime in a statement on Nov 26.

“The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent,” ADC national executive director Abed Ayoub said.

Burlington Police issued a press release saying that officers had responded to calls of shots fired around 6.30pm (2330 GMT) on Nov 25 and found two people injured at one location near the university campus and a third a short distance away.

Without identifying the victims, the police statement said the first two were treated on scene and then transported to the University of Vermont Medical Centre by the fire department, and police brought the third to the same hospital.

In a Facebook post, Ramallah Friends School, a secondary school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the three victims were graduates.

“We extend our thoughts and prayers to them and their families for a full recovery, especially considering the severity of injuries – as Hisham has been shot in the back, Tahseen in the chest, and Kinnan with minor injuries,” the Facebook post said. REUTERS