Updated at 5:13 p.m.
BURLINGTON — A 48-year-old man pleaded not guilty on Monday in a shooting that wounded three Palestinian American students in the city on Saturday night.
Jason Eaton was charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder after police said he shot the three 20-year-olds around 6:30 p.m. Saturday on North Prospect Street, according to court documents.
The shooting, which Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger called “one of the most shocking and disturbing events in this city’s history,” has thrust Vermont into the international spotlight at a pitched moment as the brutal war between Israel and Hamas continues. Weinberger said he spoke with President Joe Biden on the phone Monday morning about the incident.
Police have said two of the three men were wearing keffiyehs, a traditional scarf that has become a symbol of Palestinian identity, when they were shot, prompting local and national condemnation of the shooting as a possible hate crime.
No motive was discussed during a short hearing inside a packed room at the Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington Monday morning, during which Eaton appeared via video. Judge A. Gregory Rainville said Eaton would remain in prison while a bail hearing is scheduled. Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George has requested Eaton be held without bail.
Just hours later on Monday, at a press conference with other law enforcement leaders at Burlington City Hall, George told reporters, “Although we do not yet have evidence to support a hate crime enhancement, I do want to be clear that there is no question this was a hateful act.”
George and other officials did not rule out the possibility of prosecuting the case as a hate crime if they uncover evidence to support doing so. To make that determination, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said, local and federal officials will be investigating materials including “computer evidence” that officers have seized. He declined to elaborate on the evidence investigators have found so far.
“Following the rule of law means not making pre-judgment and requires following the facts where they lead,” Nikolas Kerest, U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont, said at the noon press conference. “And that’s what we intend to do.”
The victims — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad — all previously attended the Ramallah Friends Schools, according to the Quaker institution based in the West Bank. They are now students at different American universities outside of Vermont and were in the city visiting Awartani’s relatives.
As of Monday afternoon, all three of the men were in intensive care at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, according to Rich Price, who is Awartani’s uncle. Price said at the press conference that Awartani — whom officials identified as the most seriously injured of the three — suffered a spinal injury and “faces a long recovery.”
Abdalhamid’s injuries are “difficult, but he’ll make a full and speedy recovery,” Price added, while Aliahmad remained “in quite a lot of pain.” Aliahmad was shot in the chest, and Abdalhamid in the glute, according to the court affidavit.
An affidavit compiled by Burlington police officers described interviews with the three victims from their hospital rooms in which they described going bowling for a birthday party for Awartani’s cousins before walking through Awartani’s grandmother’s Prospect Street neighborhood to finish their cigarettes.
Awartani described speaking a mix of English and Arabic. Aliahmad said the men generally speak both languages, but he did not recall what languages they were using at the time.
Awartani and Aliahmad said they wore black-and-white keffiyehs, police wrote. Abdalhamid, who described himself as a Palestine advocate who had appeared on CBS, said he was not wearing one at the time of the shooting but had donned one earlier in the week.
They described being approached by a white man — Abdalhamid said he was on the porch of a house — who took out a pistol and opened fire. Aliahmad said he did not recall the man saying anything, and Awartani and Abdalhamid did not describe the man saying anything.
Eaton was detained Sunday afternoon and later arrested.
Federal officials who were canvassing the area of the shooting Sunday encountered Eaton at the door of his apartment, essentially by chance, Murad told reporters on Monday. According to the chief, Eaton walked out of the apartment and “appeared very nervous.” Eaton was shaking, Murad said, before he held up his hands and said “something to the effect of, ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’”
Police believe Eaton has lived in Burlington since the summer and previously lived in the Syracuse, New York, area, Murad said. Eaton’s only previous interaction with police in Vermont, according to Murad, was a minor traffic stop.
Also on Sunday, police seized a Ruger .380 LCP pistol as well as ammunition and several other firearms from Eaton’s apartment, according to the affidavit. Police recovered .380 cartridges of the same brand at the crime scene, the court document states.
According to Murad, Eaton purchased the pistol legally from a licensed firearms dealer in Vermont.
Sarah Varty and Margaret Jansch, two public defenders who are representing Eaton, declined to answer questions outside the courthouse after Monday’s hearing. Jansch told reporters, “We as human beings hope that the people who were shot recover quickly.”
In a statement Monday, Gov. Phil Scott called Eaton’s arrest “a first step on the path to achieving justice” for the victims and said “we must also work to curtail these violent acts in the future.”
“As we pull for their recovery, we must come together in support of Hisham, Kinnan and Tahseen, as well as our communities, who are reeling from this incident,” Scott continued. “One way to overcome the violence and hate is to unite to support one another.”
Speaking to reporters Monday morning in New York, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department was closely monitoring whether the conflict in the Middle East might be inspiring either international and domestic attacks, before pointing to Saturday’s shooting in Burlington.
“All of us have also seen a sharp increase in the volume and frequency of threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities across our country since Oct. 7,” he said, referring to the day a Hamas attack killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers, sparking some of the most devastating fighting in the region in decades.
“There is understandable fear in communities across the country,” Garland said.
In a statement Monday afternoon, Biden said he was horrified to learn that the three students had been shot in Vermont.
“They were simply spending Thanksgiving gathered with family and loved ones,” the president said. “We join Americans across the country in praying for their full recovery, and we send our deepest condolences to their families.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the charges against Jason Eaton.
