FBI investigating hate crime motive in shooting of Palestinian students in Vermont

Merrick Garland addresses ‘understandable fear in communities across the country’

Federal law enforcement agencies are investigating whether the shooting of three Palestinian college students in Vermont was a hate crime.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland, in remarks from New York on Monday addressing the work of the US Department of Justice to combat hate-fuelled violence, confirmed the FBI and ATF have launched investigations in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.

A white gunman fired at the three men, all in their 20s, at least four times without saying anything while they were walking near the University of Vermont, according to police. The students were speaking English and Arabic and wearing keffiyehs.

Two of the victims remain in stable condition, while one of the men remains hospitalised with serious injuries.

A suspect, Jason J Eaton, pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder in the second degree during an arraignment hearing on Monday.

“There is understandable fear in communities across the country,” Mr Garland said in remarks from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on Monday.

“Even as we speak, the ATF and FBI are investigating the tragic shooting of three men of Palestinian descent in Vermont. That investigation, including whether this is a hate crime, is ongoing,” he added. “The Justice Department is poised to provide any assistance that our state and local law enforcement partners need as we work together to protect our communities.”

Saturday’s violence follows Israel’s ongoing seige in Gaza, where more than 14,000 people, including thousands of women and children, have been killed during retaliatory bombardments following Hamas attacks on 7 October, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed, pictured in a photo from the Awartani family. (via REUTERS)

The investigation begins one month after the Justice Department opened a federal hate crimes investigation after a landlord in Illinois fatally stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy and injured his mother in what has been described as an anti-Muslim attack.

Joseph Czuba shouted anti-Muslim statements and attacked the mother of Wadea Al-Fayoume before he stabbed the boy 26 times in Plainfield Township on 14 October, one week after Hamas attacks in Israel, according to law enforcement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group, said in a statement that the latest shooting comes as “Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians across the country report a surge in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate since the escalation of violence in Palestine and Israel last month.”

Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate incidents have spiked by more than 216 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to CAIR.

“Protecting all people and all communities from hate-fueled violence was the Justice Department’s founding purpose in 1870, and it remains our urgent responsibility today,” Mr Garland said in his remarks.

“No person and no community in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence,” he added. “Fulfilling that promise motivates us every single day.”