2023-11-27 01:32:38
Three American students of Palestinian origin, who were dressed in the traditional Palestinian headscarf, were shot on Saturday night in the city of Burlington (Vermont) by an individual who has not yet been identified.
The Burlington Police Department reported this Sunday in a statement that a white man approached the young people while they were walking and “without speaking, fired at least four bullets and is believed to have fled on foot.”
Two of them were wounded in the torso and one in the lower extremities. Two of the victims are stable and one was seriously injured.
According to journalists accompanying President Joe Biden, the president was informed about what happened and “will continue to receive updates as authorities gather more information.”
Police did not identify the victims, but said they were all in their 20s and were visiting the family of one of them for the Thanksgiving holiday. All three are of Palestinian descent and two are American citizens, while the other is a legal resident.
Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad and Mayor Miro Weinberger said the injured could be victims of a hate crime, but said authorities have not confirmed it.
In a statement, the NGO ADC (Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee) stated that, after reviewing the initial information provided, There are “reasons to believe that this shooting occurred because the victims are Arabs”.
The organization identified the students as Hisham Awartani, of Brown University; Kinnan Abdalhamid, from Haverford University, and Tahseen Ahmed, from Trinity University.
“ADC calls on Vermont authorities to investigate this shooting as a hate crime. Additionally, ADC has contacted the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to also request an immediate investigation into the crimes. of hate,” the statement said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.
CAIR also called on state and federal law enforcement authorities in Vermont to investigate a possible racial motive for the shooting.
A few weeks ago, Biden reported that he had ordered Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland to strengthen protections for the Jewish, Muslim and Arab-American community in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas.
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