US: 3 Palestinian college students shot in Vermont

Three Palestinian college students were shot in Burlington City Vermont US on Saturday evening as reported by CNNAccording to information the students were walking on Prospect Street after visiting a relative in Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday when they were confronted by a white man with a handgunThe victims two of whom are US citizens and one a legal resident were taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center for medical care according to a statement issued by the police on Sunday as reported by CNNTwo are stable while one has sustained much more serious injuries the police said in its releaseWithout speaking he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled on foot police saidNotably two of the students were wearing keffiyehs traditional Palestinian scarves they addedAccording to CNN two students sustained injuries to the torso while the third suffered injuries to the lower extremitiesAuthorities said that there is no additional information to suggest the suspects motiveMoreover detectives recovered ballistic evidence from the shooting which will be submitted to a federal database according to Burlington policeReportedly the FBI on Sunday said that it was prepared to investigate the incidentAccording to CNN the shooter or shooters have not been identified or apprehended yet and the police department is at the earliest stages of investigating this crimeIn a joint statement the victims families urged law enforcement to investigate the attack as a hate crimeWe will not be comfortable until the shooter is brought to justice they saidNo family should ever have to endure this pain and agony Our children are dedicated students who deserve to be able to focus on their studies and building their futures they addedMeanwhile the Institute for Middle East Understanding issued a statement and identified the victims as Hisham Awartani a student at Brown University in Rhode Island Kinnan Abdalhamid a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Tahseen Ahmad a student at Trinity College in Connecticut CNN reportedThe incident comes amid the increased tensions and hate crimes in the US in the past few weeks since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 to which Israel retaliated with airstrikes across the Gaza StripEarlier in October a 6yearold PalestinianAmerican boy was stabbed to death by his familys landlord in a case however the authorities called it a hate crime according to CNNThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever