Three students of Palestinian origin, two of them Americans and another with legal residence in the United States, were shot and wounded on Saturday night in the city of Burlington (state of Vermont) by an individual which has not yet been identified.

The Burlington Police Department reported this Sunday in a statement that a white man approached the young men, who were wearing the Palestinian headscarf, while they were walking and “without speaking he fired at least four bullets and it is believed that he 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 the journalists accompanying President Joe Biden, who was in Nantucket (Massachusetts) this Sunday, the president was informed about what happened and “will continue to receive updates as for the authorities to gather more information.

They visited relatives

Police did not identify the victims, but said they all had 20 years old and they were visiting the family of one of them for the holidays of Thanksgiving. 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 those injured could ber victims of a hate crime, but they 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 is “reasons to believe that this shooting “It occurred because the victims are Arabs.” The organization identified the students as Hisham Awartani, of Brown University; Kinnan Abdalhamid, of Haverford University, and Tahseen Ahmed, of 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.

$10,000 for author information

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization, offered this Sunday a reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.

CAIR has also asked 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 Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland to strengthen protection for the Jewish, Muslim and Arab-American community in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas