A Vermont man has been convicted of shooting three students of Palestinian descent in 2023, leaving one of them in a wheelchair.
Jason Eaton, 51, admitted shooting Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid near the University of Vermont in Burlington in 2023.
However, he entered a not guilty plea on the grounds of insanity, with his lawyers telling the court that he believed he had heard Mossad or CIA agents instructing him to carry out such an attack via local radio broadcasts.
He insisted that he had heard members of the US and Israeli intelligence agencies telling him to “go out and shoot somebody” and that God was commanding him to protect his Jewish neighbours.
“He believed he'd been instructed to do this by a government agency or God,” Joshua O’Hara, Eaton’s defence lawyer, told the court.
Eaton’s legal team argued that the loss of his job at a credit union the week before the attack had significantly affected his mental health, resulting in a psychotic episode.
The shooting left Aliahmad and Abdalhamid wounded, but paralysed Awartani from the waist down, meaning he now uses a wheelchair.
The court heard that Eaton opened fire on the three men as they walked near his home, wearing Palestinian keffiyehs and speaking a mixture of Arabic and English.
The trio, who were school friends from their time living in Ramallah, in the West Bank, were visiting Awartani's grandmother to celebrate Thanksgiving, jurors heard.
Eaton was convicted of attempted murder at the end of a week-long trial. He now awaits sentencing, facing a potential life term behind bars.
“Justice has been rendered for Hisham, Kinnan and Tahseen. After three years of sorrow, loss, and struggle, our families finally feel relief,” said the three families in a joint statement.
“The verdict cannot undo what happened or erase the trauma our families still carry. But it affirms something fundamental: Jason Eaton is responsible for what he did.”
Claiming that Eaton had used “hateful” words to describe the three victims during the trial, the statement went on: “They were not the words of a man confused about who he shot, or why.
“They are the words of a man who saw three young men celebrating their friendship and wearing what made them feel closer to their far-away families and home – and decided to kill them because of his own prejudices.
“We do not need a jury to tell us why our sons were targeted. We heard it, in his own words. This was a hate crime. We have said so from the beginning.
“Hisham, Kinnan and Tahseen have spent three years rebuilding their bodies and their lives after a hateful act almost killed them. We are profoundly relieved. And we continue to work toward a world where hateful violence against Palestinians is called out for what it is – and stopped.”
No hate crime charges were filed against Eaton, and the court did not rule on the question of whether he was motivated by anti-Palestinian hatred.
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