Thanksgiving visit gone awry.
Jason J. Eaton pleaded not guilty to 3 counts of second-degree murder Monday morning. He allegedly shot three Palestinian-American college students in Burlington, Vermont.
Eaton made his first court appearance during an arraignment Monday morning. He is being held without bail ahead of a bond hearing. The judge said will be scheduled in the coming days. The 48-year-old man is accused of shooting Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed who were visiting Awartani’s grandmother’s house Saturday afternoon. Two are Palestinian-American citizens and one is a legal resident in the United States. Though the shooting took place near the University of Vermont, all 3 of the 20-year-olds attend other universities. Eaton is reported to have run away after the shooting.
Two of the men were wearing a keffiyeh, the traditional black-and-white checkered scarf commonly worn in Middle East at the time they were shot. It is being investigated as a hate crime. They were speaking in Arabic and English at the time of the shooting. Eaton used a pistol.
Reports of the shooting vary a little. One pro-Palestinian group claims Eaton shouted at the students and harassed them. Police say he shot them without saying a word. The first reports I read said Eaton was silent as he shot them.
The victims were reported to have been speaking Arabic when attacked, according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a nonprofit pro-Palestinian advocacy organization. It also said the assailant opened fire on the three men after he began to shout at and harass them. Police say he fired four shots without saying a word.
“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 in a statement earlier.
“That there is an indication that this shooting could have been motivated by hate is chilling, and this possibility is being prioritized” by police, Mayor Miro Weinberger said.
His mother described him as “very religious” and frequently read the Bible. His social media accounts point to a man unhappy with America. He has worked as an office assistant but bounced around between jobs, his mother said.
