Three Victims in Burlington Shooting Were of Palestinian Descent
The three victims, all 20-year-old college students, were visiting a Burlington relative of one of the men for Thanksgiving, police said on Sunday afternoon. They were walking along North Prospect Street around 6:30 p.m. when a white man confronted them and began shooting. All three victims are "of Palestinian descent,” police said; two are American citizens and one is a legal resident.
Without speaking, the man fired a handgun at least four times, according to police. Two of the victims were struck in the torso and the other in his lower extremities. All three were transported to the University of Vermont Medical Center. Two of the victims are stable, but the other “has sustained much more serious injuries,” police said.
The unknown shooter fled the scene, a residential neighborhood, on foot.
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The shooting has garnered attention around the globe amid a delicate truce and hostage exchange in the brutal war between Hamas and Israel. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the investigation, NBC News reported.
Police Chief Jon Murad said in a press release Sunday afternoon that he has contacted federal officials for assistance in case the shooting was a hate crime.Police are still working to identify a suspect and motive.
“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.”
In a statement, Mayor Miro Weinberger called the possible hate crime “chilling.”
“The City of Burlington has zero tolerance for hate crimes and will work relentlessly to bring the shooter to justice,” he said.
Gov. Phil Scott, in a separate statement, said the state is offering “full support” to the City of Burlington for the investigation. He urged Vermonters to “not let this incident incite more hate or divisiveness.
“We must come together in these difficult times — it is the only way to put a stop to the violence we’re seeing,” Scott said.
Police haven’t identified the victims, but their families shared a statement on Sunday via the Institute for Middle East Understanding naming them as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad.
Awartani is a student at Brown University in Providence, R.I.; Abdalhamid studies at Haverford College outside Philadelphia, Penn.; and Ali Ahmad attends Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., news outlets in those cities confirmed.
In an Instagram post, Haverford College said its dean of students was traveling to Burlington on Sunday.The victims all had attended the Ramallah Friends School, a Quaker school in the West Bank, according to its Facebook page.
Their families said they were “devastated” by the shooting.
“We call on law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation, including treating this as a hate crime. We will not be comfortable until the shooter is brought to justice,” the statement said. “We need to ensure that our children are protected, and this heinous crime is not repeated. No family should ever have to endure this pain and agony.”
Five people who live near the shooting scene told they didn’t hear any commotion before the gunshots rang out. One neighbor said he ran out and covered two of the victims with blankets before police arrived.
Wafic Faour, a longtime Palestinian activist in Vermont, said he had been trying Sunday morning to get information about the incident from local and state authorities, to no avail. He said Vermont Palestinians were anxious to understand what had happened.
“Not only are we worried about the victims, but I am worried about the community, too,” he said.
Faour said a stepfather of one of the men contacted him on Sunday morning. Other local activists told Faour they had met some of the victims at a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Church Street on Friday night.
On Sunday afternoon, a man who gave his first name as Sulaiman and said he is Palestinian placed a lemon cypress tree on the front steps of a home near where the victims were shot. He was visiting Burlington from Philadelphia but said he used to live in the neighborhood.“This very easily could have been me,” he said. “I’m sick to my stomach.” click to enlarge
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, both civil rights organizations, called on Vermont law enforcement to investigate the shootings as a hate crime. CAIR is offering a $10,000 reward for information that helps lead to an arrest.
The war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel on October 7, has deepened divisions across the U.S. In the weeks that followed, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy was fatally stabbed in a Chicago suburb by his family’s landlord in what police have said was a hate crime. During dueling rallies near Los Angeles earlier this month, a Jewish pro-Israeli demonstrator died from injuries sustained during an altercation with a pro-Palestinian counterpart.
In Burlington, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli activists have held numerous demonstrations. All of the events have been peaceful.
Burlington police are investigating the shooting of three Palestinian men near the University of Vermont campus Saturday night as a potential hate crime, and the shooter remains at large.The three victims, all 20-year-old college students, were visiting a Burlington relative of one of the men for Thanksgiving, police said on Sunday afternoon. They were walking along North Prospect Street around 6:30 p.m. when a white man confronted them and began shooting. All three victims are "of Palestinian descent,” police said; two are American citizens and one is a legal resident.Without speaking, the man fired a handgun at least four times, according to police. Two of the victims were struck in the torso and the other in his lower extremities. All three were transported to the University of Vermont Medical Center. Two of the victims are stable, but the other “has sustained much more serious injuries,” police said.The unknown shooter fled the scene, a residential neighborhood, on foot.Two of the victims were wearing a keffiyeh, a patterned scarf that is a symbol of Palestinian identity. A keffiyeh can be seen near the sidewalk in a crime scene video provided to Seven Days by freelance photographer Wayne Savage.The shooting has garnered attention around the globe amid a delicate truce and hostage exchange in the brutal war between Hamas and Israel. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the investigation, NBC News reported.Police Chief Jon Murad said in a press release Sunday afternoon that he has contacted federal officials for assistance in case the shooting was a hate crime. Police are still working to identify a suspect and motive.“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.”In a statement, Mayor Miro Weinberger called the possible hate crime “chilling.”“The City of Burlington has zero tolerance for hate crimes and will work relentlessly to bring the shooter to justice,” he said.Gov. Phil Scott, in a separate statement, said the state is offering “full support” to the City of Burlington for the investigation. He urged Vermonters to “not let this incident incite more hate or divisiveness.“We must come together in these difficult times — it is the only way to put a stop to the violence we’re seeing,” Scott said.Police haven’t identified the victims, but their families shared a statement on Sunday via the Institute for Middle East Understanding naming them as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad.Awartani is a student at Brown University in Providence, R.I.; Abdalhamid studies at Haverford College outside Philadelphia, Penn.; and Ali Ahmad attends Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., news outlets in those cities confirmed.In an Instagram post, Haverford College said its dean of students was traveling to Burlington on Sunday. The victims all had attended the Ramallah Friends School, a Quaker school in the West Bank, according to its Facebook page.Their families said they were “devastated” by the shooting.“We call on law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation, including treating this as a hate crime. We will not be comfortable until the shooter is brought to justice,” the statement said. “We need to ensure that our children are protected, and this heinous crime is not repeated. No family should ever have to endure this pain and agony.”Five people who live near the shooting scene toldthey didn’t hear any commotion before the gunshots rang out. One neighbor said he ran out and covered two of the victims with blankets before police arrived.Wafic Faour, a longtime Palestinian activist in Vermont, said he had been trying Sunday morning to get information about the incident from local and state authorities, to no avail. He said Vermont Palestinians were anxious to understand what had happened.“Not only are we worried about the victims, but I am worried about the community, too,” he said.Faour said a stepfather of one of the men contacted him on Sunday morning. Other local activists told Faour they had met some of the victims at a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Church Street on Friday night.On Sunday afternoon, a man who gave his first name as Sulaiman and said he is Palestinian placed a lemon cypress tree on the front steps of a home near where the victims were shot. He was visiting Burlington from Philadelphia but said he used to live in the neighborhood. “This very easily could have been me,” he said. “I’m sick to my stomach.”The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, both civil rights organizations, called on Vermont law enforcement to investigate the shootings as a hate crime. CAIR is offering a $10,000 reward for information that helps lead to an arrest.The war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel on October 7, has deepened divisions across the U.S. In the weeks that followed, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy was fatally stabbed in a Chicago suburb by his family’s landlord in what police have said was a hate crime. During dueling rallies near Los Angeles earlier this month, a Jewish pro-Israeli demonstrator died from injuries sustained during an altercation with a pro-Palestinian counterpart.In Burlington, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli activists have held numerous demonstrations. All of the events have been peaceful.
