Vermont man charged with attempted murder for shootings of Palestinian students

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A 48-year-old Vermont man was charged Monday with three counts of attempted second-degree murder in the weekend shooting of three young men of Palestinian descent on a Burlington street, a violent episode that stunned the small city.

As investigators sought to determine whether the shooting could be classified as a hate crime, local officials called the attack on the three men — college students who were visiting for Thanksgiving — one of the most shocking events in Burlington’s history.

The suspect, Jason J. Eaton, pleaded not guilty Monday and was being held without bail. He appeared in court through a remote video link from jail, and did not speak during the brief hearing except to thank the judge. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

The three young men, all 20, had been staying at the home of an uncle of one of them, and had gone out for a walk around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the Burlington police. Police said Eaton approached the three friends outside the apartment building where he lives on North Prospect Street, and without speaking, pulled out a handgun and started shooting from about 2 yards away.

According to an affidavit, the three men are Hisham Awartani, a student at Brown University; Tahseen Ali Ahmad, a student at Trinity College; and Kinnan Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College. Friends since childhood, two of the men are U.S. citizens and one is a legal resident.

The young men told relatives that they were talking in a mixture of English and Arabic before the assailant shot them, according to a family spokesperson. Two of the men were wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs, a traditional headdress.

Relatives said they feared that the young men were targeted for being Arab Americans.

Police searched Eaton’s apartment and found a .38-caliber handgun and a loaded magazine containing five rounds of the same type as some that were found at the scene of the shooting, according to the affidavit. Ballistics tests soon confirmed the connection, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said.

The gun had been purchased recently and legally, the chief added.

A public defender assigned as co-counsel for Eaton, Margaret Jansch, declined to comment on the details of the case.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.