Three students of Palestinian descent shot in Vermont in suspected hate-crime

By Gabriella Borter and Steve Gorman

(Reuters) – Police and federal agents are searching for a gunman who shot and wounded three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont, in what investigators suspect was a hate-motivated crime, authorities said.

A man with a pistol shot the three victims on the street near the University of Vermont on Saturday evening and then ran away, Burlington police said in a statement.

Two victims are U.S. citizens and the third is a legal U.S. resident, all 20 years old, police said. Two of the men were wearing a keffiyeh, the traditional black-and-white checkered scarf of Middle Eastern dress, at the time of the attack, police said.

The victims were reported to have been speaking Arabic when attacked, according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a nonprofit pro-Palestinian advocacy organization, which also said the assailant opened fire on the three men after he began to shout at and harass them. Police say he fired four shots without saying a word.

The shooting came amid a rise in anti-Islamic and antisemitic incidents reported around the United States since the latest wave of Israel-Palestinian bloodshed erupted in the Middle East on Oct. 7.

“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement.