27-11-23, 14:08
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Re: HAMAS/ISRAEL Hate CRIMES- 3 Palestinian Students Shot by White Man in Vermont
Suspect Arrested in Shooting of Three Palestinian Students in Vermont - ADC Had Called on FBI to Investigate Shooting on Palestinians as 'Hate' Motivated
20-year-olds were on their way to a family home for Thanksgiving dinner when a white man with a handgun fired on them
BBC 27 NOV 2023
The victims – Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad
A suspect was arrested Sunday in the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont the night before, police said, adding that contrary to media reports the shooter did not speak before firing.
Jason J Eaton, 48, was arrested Sunday afternoon near where the men, all 20 years old, were shot, the Burlington Police Department announced. They said he lives in an apartment close to the scene, a search of which revealed evidence that gave investigators “probable cause to believe that Mr Eaton perpetrated the shooting”, police said.
The victims – Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all 20 years old – are undergraduate students at Brown University, Haverford College and Trinity College respectively, and were on their way to Awartani’s grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner when a white man with a handgun fired on them.
Two of the men are reportedly in stable condition, according to police, but the third received “much more serious injuries” after being hit in the spinal cord. Two were reportedly wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh when they were attacked.
The chief of police, Jon Murad, recommended caution when it came to identifying a motive in the attacks. “The fact is that we don’t yet know as much as we want to right now,” Murad said. “But I urge the public to avoid making conclusions based on statements from uninvolved parties who know even less.”
The mayor of the city, Miro Weinberger, said before the arrest that the investigation was focusing on whether the attack was a hate crime, while the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said on X: “We have reason to believe that the shooting was motivated by the three [victims] being Arab.”
According to a spokesperson for the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), the committee’s attorney Abed Ayoub, who is in contact with the families, told the IMEU that the fact the shooter didn’t say anything first “makes it even clearer that authorities should be investigating this attack as a hate crime”.
“The fact that the shooter said nothing, and apparently targeted the students based on their kuffiyehs, suggests that this was a violent act motivated by anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment,” Ayoub said.
Police said two of the men are American citizens and the third is a legal resident.
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