Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad were identified by their families as the victims, according to a post on X, formerly Twitter, from the Institute for Middle East Understanding. Awartani is a student at Brown University, Abdalhamid is a student at Haverford College and Ahmed is a student at Trinity College. We are extremely concerned about the safety and well-being of our children," the statement said. "We call on law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation, including treating this as a hate crime. We will not be comfortable until the shooter is brought to justice."

The victims were in Burlington for a Thanksgiving holiday gathering, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said on Sunday.

They were walking during a visit to one of their relatives when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun, police Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled," Murad said. "All three victims were struck, two in their torsos and one in the lower extremities."

The victims are of Palestinian descent, two are U.S. citizens and one is a legal resident, Murad said. Two of them were wearing black-and-white Palestinian keffiyehscarves at the time of the attack, Murad said.