Shooting of 3 Palestinian Men in Vermont Investigated as Possible Hate Crime
The New York Times (
archive.ph)
By Emma Bubola and Amanda Holpuch
2023-11-27 00:44:16GMT
The police in Burlington, Vt., on Sunday were investigating the shooting of three students of Palestinian descent as a possible hate crime, the city’s mayor said.
The three victims, all men in their 20s and students of American universities, were walking near the University of Vermont on Saturday when they were shot and wounded by a white man with a handgun who is believed to have fled on foot, the police said in a statement on Sunday. Two of them were wearing a Palestinian kaffiyeh.
The young men told family members they were speaking a hybrid of English and Arabic before the man shot at them four times without saying anything before the attack, according to a family spokeswoman.
Two of the victims were in stable condition; the third sustained much more serious injuries, the authorities said.
“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” the chief of the Burlington police, Jon Murad, said.
Mayor Miro Weinberger of Burlington added in the statement that the possibility that the shooting could have been motivated by hate was “chilling” and that the investigation was focusing on that.
The Burlington police said they were still looking to identify and locate the shooter on Sunday. They added that other than the fact that the students are of Palestinian descent and that two of them were wearing a kaffiyeh, they had “no additional information to suggest the suspect’s motive.”
Mr. Murad said in the statement that he has already been in touch with federal authorities in case investigators determined the crime was motivated by hate. But he added that they had limited information, and he urged the public to avoid making conclusions “based on statements from uninvolved parties who know even less.”
The Burlington police did not release the names of the victims but said that two of them are American citizens and the third is a legal resident. The families of the men identified them in a statement as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmed.
The Ramallah Friends School, a private school in the West Bank, said
in a Facebook post that all three men had been students there. They are now juniors in college: Mr. Awartani studies at Brown University, Mr. Abdalhamid at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Mr. Ahmed at Trinity College in Connecticut.
The three were walking to the house of Mr. Awartani’s grandmother for dinner, according to Marwan Awartani, a great-uncle and a former education minister of the Palestinian Authority. He said that the three took a picture together and sent it to Hisham’s parents minutes before they left for dinner.
Marwan Awartani added that the bullet that hit Hisham touched his spinal cord and that he lost feeling in the lower part of his body. He remained hospitalized on Sunday evening and was “expected to survive his injuries,” according to a statement from Christina H. Paxson, the president of Brown University.
Mr. Ahmed was shot in the chest, and Mr. Abdalhamid had minor injuries, according to a statement from the families of the victims.
The families urged authorities to investigate the shooting as a hate crime.
“Why would anyone shoot kids who were wearing Palestinian kaffiyeh?” Marwan Awartani said in an interview.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said that its offices have received a huge rise in reports of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias since Oct. 7, the day that Hamas attacked Israel. The Anti-Defamation League said
in late October that there also had been a considerable increase in reported cases of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault compared with the year before.
“This has to stop,” Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom and a friend of the families, said in a phone call on Sunday, pointing to the
6-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed last month in Illinois in what authorities said was an anti-Muslim attack.
The federal government opened discrimination investigations
this month at half a dozen universities following complaints about anti-Muslim and antisemitic harassment. The Biden administration opened the investigations as part of “efforts to take aggressive action to address the alarming nationwide rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and other forms of discrimination,” according to a news release published by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
The White House said on Sunday that President Biden was briefed on the students and would continue to receive updates.
On X, the platform previously known as Twitter, Senator
Bernie Sanders of Vermont said it was “deeply upsetting that three young Palestinians were shot here in Burlington, VT. Hate has no place here, or anywhere. I look forward to a full investigation.”
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3 Palestinian students shot, injured near University of Vermont
Associated Press (
archive.ph)
By Kathy McCormack
2023-11-26 21:32:18GMT
Three young men of Palestinian descent who were in Burlington for a Thanksgiving holiday gathering were shot and injured — one seriously — near the University of Vermont, police said Sunday. Authorities said the attack may have been a hate crime.
The shootings occurred at about 6:25 p.m. Saturday near the UVM campus, according to Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad. He said police are searching for the shooter.
Two of the men are in stable condition and the other suffered “much more serious injuries,” Murad said in a news release Sunday. The three, all age 20, were visiting the home of one of the victim’s relatives and were walking when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun.
“Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled,” Murad said in a news release. “All three victims were struck, two in their torsos and one in the lower extremities.”
Murad said all three men are of Palestinian descent. Two are U.S. citizens and one is a legal resident. Two of the men were wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves.
Murad said there is no additional information to suggest the suspect’s motive.
“My deepest condolences go out to the victims and their families,” Murad said in the news release. “In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime. And I have already been in touch with federal investigatory and prosecutorial partners to prepare for that if it’s proven.”
He added, “The fact is that we don’t yet know as much as we want to right now. But I urge the public to avoid making conclusions based on statements from uninvolved parties who know even less.”
Before Murad issued his news release, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee released
a statement Sunday saying that the victims were Palestinian American college students and that there is “reason to believe this shooting occurred because the victims are Arab.”
The ADC said a man shouted and harassed the victims, who were conversing in Arabic, then proceeded to shoot them.
The FBI said it is aware of the shootings.
“If, in the course of the local investigation, information comes to light of a potential federal violation, the FBI is prepared to investigate,” Sarah Ruane, an FBI spokesperson based in Albany, New York, said in a statement.
The White House said that President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting and will continue to receive updates as law enforcement gathers more information.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or conviction of the person or people responsible for the shootings, the organization said in a statement.
The Institute for Middle East Understanding provided a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it described as being from the families of the victims.
“We are extremely concerned about the safety and well-being of our children,” it said. “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.”
In response to the shooting, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries encouraged people to “unequivocally denounce the startling rise of anti-Arab hate and Islamophobia in America.”
“No one should ever be targeted for their ethnicity or religious affiliation in our country,” the New York Democrat said in the
statement posted on X. “We will not let hatred win.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent, also denounced the attack.
“It is shocking and deeply upsetting that three young Palestinians were shot here in Burlington, VT. Hate has no place here, or anywhere. I look forward to a full investigation,” Sanders said in a statement. “My thoughts are with them and their families.”
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said that any indication that the shooting could have been motivated by hate is “chilling.” Gov. Phil Scott called it a tragedy.
“I urge Vermonters to unite to help the community heal, and not let this incident incite more hate or divisiveness,” Scott said. “We must come together in these difficult times — it is the only way to put a stop to the violence we’re seeing.”
Demonstrations have been widespread and tensions are escalating in the United States as the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war. A fragile
cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was back on track Sunday as the militants freed more hostages and Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners, all young men. It’s the third exchange under the four-day truce deal.
