Updated at 5:17 p.m.
A Burlington man accused of shooting three young men of Palestinian descent in an unprovoked attack over the weekend pleaded not guilty on Monday morning to three counts of second-degree attempted murder.
Jason J. Eaton, 48, appeared in Vermont Superior Court virtually from prison, where he is being held without bail.
He allegedly opened fire on the three men, college students who were visiting Burlington for Thanksgiving, on North Prospect Street around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Local and federal authorities said at a press conference on Monday that they were still investigating Eaton’s motive and whether the shooting was a hate crime. Two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, a patterned scarf that is a symbol of Palestinian identity.
In Vermont, hate crimes carry additional punishments but must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. “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,” Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George said.
As of Monday afternoon, the victims — Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ali Ahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid, all 20 years old — were in the intensive care unit at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
In interviews with investigators, they described a low-key visit to Burlington that began last Wednesday, during which they mostly hung out at Awartani’s grandmother’s house on North Prospect Street or took walks around the neighborhood. Shortly before the shooting, they’d gone to a birthday party for their host’s 8-year-old twins.
click to enlarge - Burlington police
- Jason J. Eaton
None of the victims said they’d seen Eaton before Saturday night. That evening, they told investigators, they were walking on North Prospect Street, speaking a mix of English and Arabic, when a man matching Eaton’s description
stumbled down the stairs of a white apartment building, pulled out a gun and, without saying a word, started firing.
Five people who live near the shooting scene told Seven Days they didn’t hear any commotion before the shots rang out. One neighbor ran out and covered two of the victims with blankets before police arrived.
Abdalhamid was shot in the leg, according to the court documents, while Ali Ahmad was shot in his upper right chest. Awartani has a bullet lodged in his spine, the filings say.
Awartani’s mother, Elizabeth Price,
spoke to NPR on Monday from her home in the West Bank. She said she and her husband didn’t want their son to come home for the holidays because they thought he’d be safer in the U.S. than in Ramallah amid the Israel-Hamas war.
"The doctors are currently saying it's unlikely he'll be able to use his legs again," Price told NPR. "He's confronting a life of disability, a potentially irreversible change to his life and what it means for his future."
At Monday’s press conference at city hall, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger described the shooting as “one of the most shocking and disturbing events in the city’s history.”
“This horrific, unprovoked attack was a tragic violation of the values and character of this welcoming, inclusive community,” he told a crowded room of reporters.
click to enlarge - Courtney Lamdin ©️ Seven Days
- Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad, surrounded by other officials, at Monday's press conference
Law enforcement officers, including agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, spent Saturday evening and Sunday canvassing the neighborhood for evidence and interviewing people who lived nearby.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Eaton told an ATF agent who knocked on his door on Sunday afternoon, court records show.
He refused to identify himself but came out with his palms up and asked for a lawyer.
Asked whether there were guns inside his apartment, Eaton told the agent he had a shotgun.
Eaton was subsequently detained. A search of his apartment later on Sunday turned up ammunition and four guns, including a Ruger .380-caliber LCP pistol
and a loaded magazine containing five rounds of ammunition matching the brand of rounds found at the scene. Ballistics testing later connected the pistol to the fired rounds, according to Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad.
Eaton bought the pistol in April at a gun store in Williston, according to the affidavit.
Murad said Eaton appeared to have moved to Burlington from Syracuse, N.Y., sometime over the summer and was living in an apartment at 69 North Prospect Street. The shooting happened outside Eaton's building.
click to enlarge - Courtesy of the Institute for Middle East Understanding
- From left: Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Hisham Awartani
Inside Eaton’s home, investigators also discovered several cell phones and a backpack of computer hard drives. Police said they’re not aware of Eaton’s religious affiliation, but Eaton’s mother, Mary Reed,
told the Daily Beast on Monday that her son is “a very religious person” who often reads the Bible.
“He, like all of us, thinks the world is a mess,” Reed told the outlet. “He is a spiritual person.”
In the interview, Reed said her son had dealt with depression and “other mental health issues” but that he’d been in a good mood when she saw him on Thanksgiving. Eaton didn’t bring up the Israeli-Hamas conflict at dinner, Reed told the Daily Beast.
Reed did not return an interview request from
Seven Days on Monday.
Online, Eaton posted content from a Unitarian Universalist church. In a statement to
Seven Days, the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington confirmed that Eaton had volunteered there for “a short time” but had never been a member of the congregation.
“As a faith tradition, we affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. We pray for the recovery of these young people and that their families and loved ones will know comfort and support,” the statement said.
The case has garnered international attention amid the brutal war between Israel and Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and conducted a surprise attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people last month. Israel has responded with a bombing campaign and ground invasion that has killed an estimated 14,000 people.
For the past few days, the sides have abided by a tenuous cease-fire agreement and Hamas has returned some of the 240 hostages it took during its October 7 attack.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, President Joe Biden said he was “horrified” to learn about the shooting and is praying for the victims’ recovery. He said he’d spoken with Mayor Weinberger and offered help from federal authorities.
“While we are waiting for more facts, we know this: there is absolutely no place for violence or hate in America. Period,” the president said. “No person should worry about being shot at while going about their daily lives.”
At the press conference, Weinberger expressed his sympathies to two of the victims’ uncles, who were in attendance.
click to enlarge - Courtney Lamdin ©️ Seven Days
- Radi Tamimi, left, and Richard Price, family members of the victims
Richard Price, Awartani’s uncle and a Burlington resident, said people often ask him whether he’s worried about the safety of his relatives in the West Bank.
“The reality is, as difficult as their life is, they are surrounded by an incredible sense of community,” he said.
That the young men were ultimately less safe in Vermont — “tragic irony is not even the right phrase,” he said. “It speaks to the level of hatred that exists in some corners of this country. It speaks to a sickness of gun violence that exists in this country.”
Radi Tamimi, Abdalhamid’s uncle who lives in San Francisco, arrived at the press conference just after landing in Burlington. Both he and Price said their families understand that the investigation will take time. But they said they suspected their nephews were victims of a hate crime.
“To imagine, with everything that's happening, that this was just a random act?” Tamimi said. “It doesn’t feel that way.”
Derek Brouwer contributed reporting.
Correction, November 27, 2023: An earlier version of this story misstated the charges against Eaton.