BOSTON (AP) — As authorities in Vermont push forward with their investigation of the weekend shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent…
As authorities in Vermont push forward with their investigation of the weekend shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent, they are weighing whether to treat the violence as a hate crime.
The three young men were shot and seriously injured Saturday while walking near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington. The victims were speaking in a mix of English and Arabic and two of them were also wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, police said. The suspect, a white man in his 40s, fired at them with a handgun, police said.
Jason Eaton, 48, was arrested Sunday and has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder.
The shooting has rocked the local community and comes amid an increase in threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities across the U.S. since the Israel-Hamas war began.
But whether it can be declared a hate crime is complicated, especially since authorities have said they don’t yet have evidence to call it that.
