A suspect, Jason J. Eaton, 48, appeared virtually in court on Monday morning for his first hearing after being charged with the shooting of three Palestinian students near the University of Vermont. Eaton pleaded not guilty to all three counts of attempted second-degree murder. He is currently being held without bail and a bond hearing is expected to be scheduled in the coming days. The victims, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ahmed, were attending a Thanksgiving holiday gathering in Burlington, Vermont when they were shot and injured on Saturday evening.
According to the police, the students were walking to dinner when they were confronted by Eaton, a White man with a handgun, who opened fire on them without speaking. The shooting took place in front of Eaton’s apartment building. Eaton was apprehended near the scene of the crime on Sunday afternoon. The three victims, all 20 years old, are currently hospitalized. Two of them are U.S. citizens, while the third is a legal U.S. resident.
It was reported that two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, traditional scarves worn in the Middle East, and were speaking Arabic at the time of the shooting. The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee condemned the incident. The FBI, along with the Burlington Police Department, ATF, and other federal, state, and local agencies, are actively investigating the shooting.
This incident highlights the rising anti-Jewish prejudice across the U.S. and the world. It serves as a reminder of the need to address and combat such acts of hate.
