The man who shot three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont, wounding them, has been identified and arrested. The Burlington Police Department announced this by identifying the attacker as Jason J. Eaton, 48 years old. The man was arrested in recent hours at the scene of the attack, near where he lives, and will appear in court today. Tahseen Ahmad of Trinity College, Kinnan Hamid of Haverford College and Hisham Awartani of Brown University, all in their 20s, were walking down the street when the man shot them “without speaking.”
The three injured young men of Palestinian origin were in Burlington, Vermont, for a Thanksgiving gathering and were wounded by gunshots – one seriously – near the local university. The police made this known, underlining that the attack may have been a crime motivated by hate. Two of the boys are in stable condition, while the third suffered “much more serious injuries,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said. The three boys were walking when they were confronted by a white man with a gun. “Without speaking, he fired at least four shots and fled,” Murad said. “All three victims were shot.”
Murad added that the three men are of Palestinian origin: two are US citizens and one is a legal resident. Two of the boys were wearing black and white Palestinian keffiyeh. Murad noted that there is no further information to suggest a motive. “In this tense moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate crime. I am already in contact with federal partners to prepare for this eventuality, should it arise,” he said.
The White House said that President Joe Biden was informed of the shooting. US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries encouraged people to “unequivocally denounce the astonishing growth of anti-Arab hatred and Islamophobia in America. No one should ever be targeted for their ethnicity or religious affiliation in our country – we will not let hate win,” the New York Democrat wrote on X.
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