3 Palestinian Students Shot in Vermont—A Community in Shock

3 Palestinian Students Shot in Vermont: Three Palestinian college students were shot and hurt in Vermont on Monday, and Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said that investigators are “working hard” to figure out why.

He told the press two days after the killing, “We still don’t know as much as we want to know.” “But I would ask the public and you in the media not to jump to conclusions based on what people who don’t know as much as we do say.” It’s important to us that we find this information.

Marwan Awartani, a former Palestinian education minister speaking on behalf of the victims’ families, says that the three students were shot while going for a walk before dinner. They were in Burlington to visit Hisham Awartani’s grandma for the Thanksgiving holiday.

3 Palestinian Students Shot in Vermont

The three people were walking on Prospect Street when they were accosted by the suspect, who was described as a white guy and was “on foot in the area,” police said before Eaton was arrested.

Police said in a release, “The suspect fired at least four rounds from the gun without speaking and is thought to have run away on foot.”

According to cops, two of the victims were hurt when they arrived at the scene of the shooting around 6:30 p.m. ET. The third person was discovered not far away.

Rich Price, who is the uncle of one of the shooting victims and was hosting the students for Thanksgiving, said that the three students are still in the hospital in a critical care unit.

The students who were shot and killed were Hisham Awartani from Brown University in Rhode Island, Kinnan Abdalhamid from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Tahseen Ali Ahmad from Trinity College in Connecticut. Statements from the families of the victims were released by the Institute for Middle East Understanding.

The third student had “much more serious injuries,” according to the cops. Two of the students were in stable condition over the weekend.

Families of the victims and a number of civil rights groups had been asking police to carefully look into whether the shooting was motivated by hate. This was because of reports that anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias incidents have been on the rise in the US since the war between Israel and Hamas started last month.

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Burlington Police said Eaton was caught on Sunday afternoon near the scene of the attack, about a day after they say he shot the three 20-year-olds. At Eaton’s arraignment meeting on Monday, the judge said he should not be released on bond. Eaton looked like he was wearing an orange jumpsuit.

The case has gotten a lot of attention across the country because of the rise in hate crimes since the war between Israel and Hamas started.

Police said that Eaton lives in an apartment building right next to where the shooting happened, and that a search of his home turned up evidence that gave them “probable cause to believe that Mr. Eaton perpetrated the shooting.”

A law enforcement source said that a.380 semi-automatic Ruger gun was found in the suspect’s home during the search. The weapon was taken to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ballistics lab, where experts are firing a comparison bullet to examine it against the bullets recovered from the victims and shell casings recovered at the scene.

Eaton could spend the rest of his life in jail if he is found guilty of attempted murder. Authorities say they are also looking into whether the killing may have been a hate crime. This includes the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont.

A lawyer for Eaton, Margaret Jansch, said it was “premature to speculate” about a possible hate crime motive after Monday’s meeting.

Reporters asked Jansch what the suspect said to his lawyers. He said that information was private and added, “Anything he may have said to us we cannot disclose.”

Police say that around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, ATF officers were searching the shooting area when they came across Eaton and arrested him.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” the suspect is said to have told ATF agents when they approached Eaton, according to a probable cause statement.

While infiltrating his room, the police found a shotgun and a Ruger 380 LCP gun loaded with five rounds in his dresser.

Police said that while the investigation was going on, they were talking to witnesses, walking around the area again, and looking at ballistic evidence that had been found at the spot.

To carry on with the investigation further, the FBI helped the police with resources like victim services and computer and cell phone analysis.

Before police said they had arrested a suspect, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said they were thinking about whether the attack might have been hate-related.

“That there is an indication this shooting could have been motivated by hate is chilling, and this possibility is being prioritized in the investigation,” Weinberger said in a statement.

Families of the victims and civil rights groups have said again that the shooting happened at a time when some Muslim and Arab communities in the US have been very worried about their safety since the war in the Middle East started.

The president of Brown University, where Awartani goes to school, said that many students have voiced “deep anxiety and fear about rising tensions and violence around the world.”

“I know that this heinous and despicable act of violence — this latest evidence of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination and hate spiraling across this country and around the world — will leave many in our community deeply shaken,” Brown president Christina H. Paxson said in a statement.

“We know it will heighten concerns about personal safety and security for Palestinian and Arab members of our community,” she added.