Topline
Three Palestinian college students were shot in Burlington, Vermont, Saturday by a white man who is being pursued by police, law enforcement said, though the motivation remains unknown.
City Hall in Burlington, Vermont. Three Palestinian students were shot in Burlington Saturday … [+]
Key Facts
The unidentified gunman approached the three men on the street at approximately 6:30 p.m. Saturday and fired four rounds, hitting two of the victims in the torso and the third below his waist, police said.
Two of the victims are in stable condition, and the third was seriously injured, according to officials.
The victims, all 20-years-old, were identified by their alma mater, the Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank, as Hisham Awartani, a student at Brown University; Kinnan Abdel Hamid, a student at Haveford University; and Tahseen Ahmed, a student at Trinity College.
Two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, scarves often worn to symbolize Palestinian solidarity.
Police have not determined a motive for the shooting, Burlington police chief Jon Murad said, acknowledging “no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime.”
Key Background
The shooting comes amid heightened tensions on college campuses between pro-Palestinian and Jewish students as a result of the Israel-Hamas war. Both Palestinian-American and Jewish community leaders in the U.S. have reported a surge of threats and incidents of violence in recent months. In October, 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume died and his mother Hanaan Shahin was seriously injured in a stabbing in Dearborn, Michigan, in what the Justice Department has determined was a hate crime.
Two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, scarves worn to symbolize Palestinian solidarity.
