The Burlington Police Department in Vermont (northeastern USA) reported this Monday an arrest on Sunday afternoon suspect in the shooting of three young men of Palestinian origin on Saturday evening as they walked down the street, one of them in serious condition.

Suspect Jason J. Eaton, 48, arrested near the scene of the attack, near the University of Vermont. While charges are expected and the possibility of it being a hate crime is being considered, a police report describes it as three counts of aggravated assault, CNN reported.

Young people, 20 years old, They were walking down the street on Saturday night when they encountered a man who, without saying a word, shot at them, the police report said. However, two of them were in stable condition over the weekend. The situation of the third is serious.

The victims are students Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahsin Ahmad. Their families and civil rights groups have called for an investigation into whether the shootings were motivated by hate crimes, amid an increase in attacks on the Arab community in the United States since the start of a new war between Israel and Hamas.

This was reported in a message from the students’ former school in the West Bank. Facebook Sunday on which youThree of his graduates were shot and killed near the University of Vermont campus.

Hisham Awartani studies at Brown University in Rhode Island; Kinnan Abdel Hamid attends Haverford College in Pennsylvania; Tahsin Ahmed is a student at Trinity College in Connecticut.

“We extend our sympathies and prayers to them and their families. “to recover fully, especially given the severity of the injuries, as Hisham received a gunshot wound to the back, Tahsin to the chest, and Kinnan received minor injuries,” the statement said. Facebook.

Burlington police said in a statement late Saturday that officers responded to reports of shots fired around 6:30 p.m. Saturday night and found two people. injuries at a location near the university campus and a third nearby.

The students spoke Arabic and They wore the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry announced this on Sunday, calling on the US authorities to punish those responsible.

The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a US-based human rights organization, called on state and federal law enforcement agencies in a statement Sunday investigate the shooting as a hate crime.

You might be interested > Three Palestinian university students shot dead in US

“The rise in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment that we are experiencing is unprecedented. “This is another example of the kind of hatred that becomes violent,” said Abed Ayoub, National Executive Director of ADC.

(according to information from Europe Press And Reuters)