NAfter the shooting of three young men of Palestinian descent in the American state of Vermont, police are investigating a possible hate crime. The attack on the 20-year-old students took place on Saturday evening in the city of Burlington. According to police reports on Sunday, the attacker approached with a pistol and fired at least four shots at the men “without saying anything” before fleeing on foot. According to police, two victims are in stable condition, but one man is “particularly seriously” injured.
The parents wrote in a statement shared on social media Sunday that they were “devastated by the news that our children were targeted and shot in Burlington.” They further called on the investigating authorities to investigate the incident as a hate crime. It must be ensured “that our children are protected and that this heinous crime is not repeated.” According to police, two of the three young men have American citizenship and one has a residence permit.
“Don’t jump to conclusions”
Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement on Sunday that in “this tense situation” suspicions inevitably arise “that this may have been a hate crime.” He has already contacted the investigative authorities and the public prosecutor’s office if this turns out to be true. However, while investigations are still ongoing, one should not draw hasty conclusions “that are based on statements from bystanders who know even less than the police.” The first priority is to locate and arrest the perpetrator.
Murad is likely to be referring to statements made by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). The civil rights group wrote on Platform X on Sunday that there was reason to believe that the students were attacked because of their Palestinian origins. The men wore black and white keffiyehs, a sign of support for the Palestinians, and spoke Arabic.
According to ADC, they were students at Brown University in Rhode Island, Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Trinity College in Connecticut and were visiting one man’s grandmother over Thanksgiving. The Council on American-Islamic Relations offered a $10,000 reward on Sunday for information about the perpetrator.
Anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have increased sharply since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader of the House of Representatives, called on Americans on Sunday to “unequivocally denounce the frightening rise in anti-Arab hatred and Islamophobia.”
The Federal Police FBI had already warned a month ago of an increased number of attacks on Muslims and Jews. In mid-October, a man in Illinois stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American child and injured his mother; He is being investigated for a hate crime. The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the gun attack in Vermont.
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