Authorities said that on Sunday (local time), police and federal agents looked for the accused who shot and injured three college students of Palestinian heritage in Burlington, Vermont. They believe the incident was motivated by hatred.
According to a statement from Burlington police, a man brandishing a pistol shot the three victims on the street close to the University of Vermont on Saturday night before fleeing.
The victims are all 20 years old; two are US citizens and the third is a legal resident in the country. According to police, at the time of the attack, two of the men wore keffiyehs, the traditional black-and-white checkered scarf associated with Middle Eastern clothing.
The non-profit pro-Palestinian advocacy organization Institute for Middle East Understanding said the attacker started shouting at and harassing the three men before opening fire on them. The victims were reportedly speaking Arabic when they were attacked. He reportedly fired four shots silently, according to the police.
Since the most recent wave of Israel-Palestinian violence broke out in the Middle East on October 7, there have been an increasing number of anti-Islamic and antisemitic incidents in the US. This coincided with the shooting.
“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement.
Police said all three remained under medical care on Sunday, 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,” police said.
