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Three young men of Palestinian origin were shot and injured on Saturday night by a man in the U.S. state of Vermont, local police announced, suspecting a hate crime related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A suspect has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.
Three young men of Palestinian origin were shot on Saturday, one of them seriously, in the U.S. state of Vermont, announced the police on Sunday, November 26. A 48-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged with attempted murder.
This attack has sparked outrage, with President Joe Biden expressing being "horrified" in a statement from the White House.
The Attorney General, Merrick Garland, indicated that an "investigation is ongoing, including to determine if it is a hate-motivated criminal act."
The 48-year-old suspect was arrested late on Sunday after a search of his residence, near where the incident occurred the previous evening, as stated by the Burlington police. He is suspected of firing a .380 caliber handgun four times at the three students, all 20 years old, hitting each of them.
"One of them suffered injuries that could follow him throughout his life," said Police Chief Jon Murad during a press conference. The other two were described on Sunday as being in a "stable condition."
"The Hateful Act"
The three students, who were spending Thanksgiving in Burlington near the Canadian border, were walking down the street conversing in English and Arabic when the suspect approached them, without speaking, and opened fire before fleeing, explained Jon Murad. Two victims were wearing a keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf.
Two of them are U.S. citizens, and the third legally resides in the United States, according to authorities.
The suspect has been held in custody without the possibility of bail, according to the American press.
"While we do not yet have evidence to say that this is a hate-motivated crime, it is very clear that we are dealing with a hateful act," emphasized local prosecutor Sarah George.
In the United States, a hate crime refers to an act against a targeted individual based on certain characteristics of their identity, such as ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or disability.
In a joint statement on Monday, the families of the victims indicated that the investigation, "will likely show that our sons were targeted and attacked just because they are Palestinians." According to them, "hateful rhetoric" spread "in the American media and even by some of the country's most prominent elected officials" has contributed to creating an "environment of increased racism and violence towards Palestinians and Arabs."
For Rich Price, an uncle of one of the victims present at the press conference, this attack "shows the level of tension and hatred that exists in certain parts" of the country.
Increase in Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic Acts
In the United States, the conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip has led to heightened tensions and a surge in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents.
In early October, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy near Chicago was stabbed by a septuagenarian charged with a hate crime, an act directly linked to the war according to the police.
In California, a professor faces involuntary manslaughter charges after the death of a Jewish man during a gathering in early November that turned into a confrontation between pro-Palestinians and pro-Israelis.
"We have all witnessed a significant increase in the number and frequency of threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities" since the start of the war, noted the Minister of Justice on Monday. "There is understandable fear within these communities."
In this context, he assured that the Department of Justice was "closely monitoring what impact the conflict in the Middle East can have on terrorist organizations and violent extremists in the United States and abroad."