Police in Burlington, Vermont, have arrested a suspect for the shooting of three Palestinian men on Saturday night, which state and federal authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime. All three victims are expected to survive, though one is seriously injured. Below is everything we know about the shooting and its aftermath.
Suspect Jason Eaton has been charged with second-degree attempted murder
In a statement on Sunday, Burlington Police Department identified the suspect as 48-year-old Jason Eaton, who lives adjacent to the crime scene. According to the Burlington Free Press, an agent from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Eaton on Sunday afternoon while doing a routine search of the crime scene. NBC News reports that when Eaton opened his door, he told the agent “I’ve been waiting for you,” and that the suspected possessed ammunition that matched ammunition at the scene. Eaton was arraigned on Monday morning and pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder in the second degree. He is being held without bond.
Is this a hate crime?
It is still unclear. Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said on Sunday that “there is an indication this shooting could have been motivate by hate” and that “this possibility is being prioritized in the BPD’s investigation.” In a statement on Sunday night, Vermont U.S. Attorney Nikolas Kerest announced that his office and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will also investigate the possibility of a hate crime.
“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 on Sunday. “And I have already been in touch with federal investigatory and prosecutorial partners to prepare for that if it’s proven.” Earlier that day, police said they had “no additional information to suggest the suspect’s motive” beyond the kaffiyeh worn by two of the students.
After Eaton’s arrest, details began to trickle out about his life, though none so far point to a clear motive. Eaton’s mother told the Daily Beast that he seemed “totally normal” on Thanksgiving and did not mention the war in Gaza. She also described him as a “very religious person.” Social media profiles found by Vice News and NBC News found that Eaton described himself as a “radical citizen” patrolling “demockracy and crapitalism for oathcreepers.” On an archived Substack, he also wrote that COVID was a government conspiracy. Eaton, who also wrote about finance, was employed until earlier this month as an “assistant to a financial officer” at Cusco Financial services, according to the Daily Beast.
How the shooting unfolded
Police say that on Saturday night around 6:30 p.m., three 20-year-old men were walking near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, speaking both Arabic and English. They were
then confronted by a white man, later identified by authorities as Eaton, with a handgun from just a few yards away. “Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled,” Murad said in a statement on Sunday.
The Burlington police’s probable cause affidavit cites the account of one victim, Hisham Awartani, who stated that they were shot outside the house of his grandmother whom he and his friends were visiting for Thanksgiving. During their walk past a white house, a “wonky” man stared at them, descended his house steps, and then fired at them with a pistol.
Who are the victims?
Kinnan Abdalhamid, Tahseen Ahmed, and Hisham Awartani, were identified by their families as the victims in a joint statement. Raised in the West Bank where they attended a K-11 school in Ramallah, they later emigrated to the United States and currently attend colleges in the Northeast. Police previously said that two of the men are U.S. citizens and one is a legal resident.
Awartani was shot in the back, Abdalhamid in the backside, and Ahmed was shot in the upper chest. Police said Awartani and Abdalhamid were in stable condition at a local hospital, while Ahmed suffered “much more serious injuries.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Awartani’s uncle Marwan, a former education minister for the Palestinian Authority, said that the group was visiting Hisham’s grandmother over the Thanksgiving break. Minutes before the attack, the three took a picture together to send to their families, which was soon widely circulated online:
Marwan Awartini said that his great nephew had lost feeling in the lower half of his body after a bullet made contact with his spinal cord. The president of Brown University, where Tahseen goes to school, told the Times that he is “expected to survive his injuries.”
“No family should ever have to endure this pain and agony,” their parents’ joint statement read. “Our children are dedicated students who deserve to be able to focus on their studies and building their futures.”
This post has been updated to include additional reporting.
