correction
A previous version of this article incorrectly said Jason Eaton faces second-degree murder charges in the shooting of three men. He faces attempted second-degree murder charges. The article also identified Burlington as the capital of Vermont. It is Montpelier. The article has been corrected.
A Vermont man was charged Monday with three counts of attempted second-degree murder in the shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent — an attack that followed a quiet Thanksgiving for the trio and drew condemnation across the United States.
Jason Eaton pleaded not guilty during a short, televised appearance in Chittenden County Superior Court. The 48-year-old Burlington resident, who wore a red jail jumpsuit and spoke only briefly during his arraignment, is being held without bail ahead of a hearing that is expected in the coming days. It was not clear Monday evening whether Eaton had retained an attorney.
The victims — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all 20 years old — remain in intensive care, Awartani’s uncle, Rich Price, said during a Monday news conference. Awartani was shot in the spine, Ahmad in the chest and Abdalhamid in the backside while the three longtime friends visited Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday, according to court documents. All are expected to recover, though Price noted that Awartani, in particular, “faces a long recovery.”
A vigil for the men was held at Brown University on Monday afternoon, Reuters reported.
Investigators said they are still working to determine a motive for the violence against the men, two of whom are U.S. citizens and the third of whom is a legal U.S. resident. Although authorities do not have evidence to support a hate crime enhancement, Chittenden County State Attorney Sarah George said they want to be “clear that there is no question this was a hateful act.”
Federal officials from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also probing the incident, including whether it was a hate crime, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a meeting with New York-based law enforcement Monday morning.
He noted a “sharp increase in the volume and frequency of threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities across our country” since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Israel retaliated with a bombardment of the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 13,300 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Students and teachers at Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank on Nov. 28 showed solidarity with the three victims of a shooting in Burlington, Vt. (Video: Reuters)
President Biden, who called Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger to discuss the investigation, said in a statement that he was “horrified” to learn of the shooting. He added that the victims “were simply spending Thanksgiving gathered with family and loved ones.”
“While we are waiting for more facts, we know this: There is absolutely no place for violence or hate in America,” he said. “Period.”
According to court documents, Awartani, Abdalhamid and Ahmad (who in some news releases has been referred to as Ahmed) were in Burlington visiting Awartani’s grandmother for Thanksgiving. Awartani is a student at Brown University in Rhode Island, Abdalhamid at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Ahmad at Trinity College in Connecticut. They previously attended Ramallah Friends School, a Quaker-run private school in Ramallah, West Bank, school officials said.
The three were taking a walk Saturday when violence cut short a weekend of family events that included bowling and a trip to the movies. They told police that they were speaking a mixture of Arabic and English and that two of them wore kaffiyeh — headdresses traditionally worn across the Arab world, the black and white version of which has come to be associated with Palestinians and is often donned as a scarf.
As they strolled, a man stepped off a porch with a gun, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said during Monday’s news conference. The victims told authorities the man did not speak before opening fire on them.
ATF agents were canvassing door-to-door when they found the suspected shooter Sunday afternoon, Murad said. Agents knocked on Eaton’s door and he came out with his arms raised.
“The ATF agents were greeted by a man who stepped out of the hall, out of the door toward them with his palms up at waist height and stated something to the effect of, ‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ ” Murad said. He added that the man then said he would like a lawyer.
Eaton was detained and taken to police headquarters, and later a warrant was issued to search his apartment. Court documents say ATF and Burlington police seized a .380-caliber pistol. They seized other firearms, including two shotguns and a rifle, as well as technology including five cellphones and a backpack filled with hard drives, the documents say.
Relatives of the three victims expressed shock at the shooting. Price described them as “incredible young men” who are “committed to building incredible lives.” He noted that they had just returned from attending the birthday party of 8-year-old twins when they went out for the walk during which they were attacked.
“If you’re in college, who wants to go a 8-year-old birthday party? But these three guys did, and they came, they played with my boys,” he said, adding that he was impressed by the resilience they have displayed since the shooting.
The men’s families said they were “relieved” after hearing about the charges, but they urged authorities to file hate-crime counts.
Monday’s charges are “an important and welcomed first step towards justice and accountability for our sons,” said their statement sent via the Institute for Middle East Understanding on Monday afternoon.
Uncles of two of the Palestinian American college students shot in Vermont questioned on Nov. 27 the decision to send their nephews to study in the U.S. (Video: Reuters)
Price said at the news conference that the families of the victims fear the shooting was motivated by hate and that the three men may have been “targeted because they were Arabs, that they were wearing kaffiyehs.”Abdalhamid’s uncle, Radi Tamimi, who had flown in from California, said his family had believed his nephew would be safer in the U.S. than in the West Bank, where he grew up.
“Kinnan grew up in the West Bank and we always thought that that could be more of a risk in terms of his safety and sending him here would be the right decision,” he said. “We feel betrayed by that decision.”
Hannah Allam, Devlin Barrett, Ben Brasch, Abigail Hauslohner and Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.