A Vermont man was convicted of attempted murder for the November 2023 shooting of three Palestinian college students near his home in Burlington. Jason Eaton, 51, was found guilty by a jury after a weeklong trial that included testimony from the victims and psychiatric experts. The attack left one victim paralyzed and the other two wounded.

The three men—Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid—were walking near the University of Vermont campus during a visit home for Thanksgiving when Eaton opened fire without warning. Two of the students were wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyehs at the time. Awartani, who was studying at Brown University, was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the chest, the bullet ricocheting off his scapula and injuring his spinal cord. Aliahmad, attending Trinity College, was wounded in the collarbone, and Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College, was shot in the right buttock.

Eaton did not contest that he was the shooter but pleaded not guilty. His defense centered on an insanity claim, arguing he suffered from a delusional psychotic disorder triggered after losing his job at a credit union two weeks prior to the shooting. Defense attorneys said Eaton believed he was receiving commands from the CIA and Mossad transmitted via FM radio broadcasts and that he was divinely instructed to protect his Jewish neighbors by committing the shootings. The jury rejected this defense.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Eaton had purchased the handgun used in the attack, a Ruger .380-caliber pistol, seven months earlier and had three shotguns in his apartment. Neighbor testimony included hearing gunshots and helping the wounded victims before emergency services arrived.

The incident occurred weeks after the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas in October 2023 and ignited community trauma and calls for a hate crime investigation. However, no hate crime charges were filed. Authorities cited uncertainty over whether anti-Palestinian animus, mental illness, or other factors motivated the attack.

The victims expressed relief following the verdict. Eaton was ordered held without bail pending sentencing, which is yet to be scheduled. He faces the possibility of life in prison for the shootings that profoundly impacted the Burlington community and resonated internationally, including in the West Bank where the victims grew up and met as schoolmates before attending college in the United States.