Easton approached the three men right outside his apartment, pulled out his pistol and wordlessly opened fire from a few feet away, then disappeared from the scene.
(1/8)Jason J. Eaton, 48, a suspect who was arrested in the shootings of three students of Palestinian descent, poses for a police booking photo in Burlington, Vermont, United States on 27 November 2023. Burlington Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
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(1/8)Jason J. Eaton, 48, a suspect who was arrested in the shootings of three students of Palestinian descent, poses for a police booking photo in Burlington, Vermont, United States on 27 November 2023. Burlington Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
The man accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vt., over the weekend pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted murder charges and was ordered by a judge to remain held without bail.
Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arraigned in Chittenden County Criminal Court in Burlington, appearing via video feed from the county jail where he has been held since his arrest Sunday, the day after the attack.
Police said investigators are treating Saturday night’s gun violence in the heart of Vermont’s largest city as a suspected hate crime.
Two of the three men shot said they were wearing black and white Palestinian keffiyehs, and one said they were conversing in a mixture of English and Arabic when the gunman confronted them, according to the charging documents filed in court.
The three friends – identified in court documents as Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid, all 20 years old – were still under medical care Monday with gunshot wounds to the spine, chest and buttocks. PhotoAFP
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The three friends – identified in court documents as Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid, all 20 years old – were still under medical care Monday with gunshot wounds to the spine, chest and buttocks. PhotoAFP
The three friends – identified in court documents as Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid, all aged 20 – were still under medical care Monday with gunshot wounds to the spine, chest and buttocks, respectively. authorities said.
The victims told police they were shot while walking near the University of Vermont, about a block from Awartani’s grandmother’s house, after an afternoon spent at a bowling alley, according to a police affidavit filed in support of the charges.
All three men are undergraduates at colleges in other cities, but were staying with Awartani and his relatives in Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Police say Easton approached the three men right outside his apartment, pulled out his pistol and wordlessly opened fire from a few feet away, then disappeared from the scene. Investigators said he fired four shots in all.
‘I WAITED FOR YOU’
The shooting sparked an intense manhunt by local, state and federal law enforcement, including the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). .
Eaton was taken into custody the next day after an ATF agent knocked on his door while he was walking through the neighborhood and was greeted by the suspect, who held out his hands with his palms facing toward him. high, and told the officer, “I was waiting for you,” according to the police affidavit.
A search of the apartment later uncovered a handgun, ammunition matching cartridges found at the crime scene, a .22-caliber rifle and two shotguns, police said.
He was charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder, a crime punishable by a prison sentence of 20 years to life if convicted.
“While we do not yet have evidence to support an increase in hate crimes, I want to be clear that there is no doubt that this was a hateful act,” said Sarah Fair George, Chittenden County State’s Attorney, during a press briefing Monday. .
The shooting came amid a surge in anti-Islamic, anti-Arab and anti-Semitic incidents and threats reported in the United States since a bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas erupted on July 7. october.
“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident without suspecting that this may have been a hate crime,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement Sunday.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit during his three-minute arraignment, Eaton responded “yes, sir” when the judge asked him if he understood the charges against him.
Police said the suspect legally acquired the gun used in the shooting a few months ago.
The U.S. Department of Justice is assisting local authorities in the investigation, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday.
“No person or community in this country should have to live in fear of deadly violence,” Garland said before a separate meeting at New York’s Southern District office.
The White House said President Joe Biden was horrified by the shooting. “There is absolutely no place for violence or hatred in America,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing.
According to the victims’ families, Awartani is a student at Brown University in Rhode Island, Abdalhamid is enrolled at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Aliahmad attends Trinity College in Connecticut.
Police said all three were of Palestinian descent — two of them were U.S. citizens and the third a legal resident of the United States.
They graduated from Ramallah Friends School, a private Quaker secondary school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the families said.
