Three Palestinian students were shot for wearing their country’s traditional keffiyeh scarves in Vermont, USA.
The three boys – identified as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed – were in Burlington for Thanksgiving holidays when they were targeted and injured, leaving one critically wounded.
The victims, aged 20, were students of Harvard University, Brown University and Trinity University.
According to the police, they were walking while visiting the home of one of the victim’s relatives when they were confronted by a white man with a gun.
“Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement.
“The fact is that we don’t yet know as much as we want to right now,” he added. “But I urge the public to avoid making conclusions based on statements from uninvolved parties who know even less.”
According to a statement released by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the victims were Palestinian American college students and that there is “reason to believe this shooting occurred because the victims are Arab.”
It further revealed that a man shouted at and harassed the three young men, who were chatting in Arabic, and then shot them.
The FBI Albany, New York, posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter) stating that they are
“actively” investigating the case with the Burlington Police Department, ATF and other federal, state and local agencies.
#FBIAlbany updated statement regarding the shooting in Burlington, Vermont: pic.twitter.com/UEkm575278
— FBI Albany (@FBIAlbany) November 27, 2023
