Crime · updated 42m ago · 2 min read
Jason Eaton Convicted Of Attempted Murder In Burlington Shooting Of Three Palestinian Students
Jason Eaton convicted of three counts of attempted second-degree murder for the 2023 Burlington shooting. Insanity defense rejected; jury found guilty despite Eaton's CIA and Mossad orders delusion claims.
Whether it was a hate crime.
11 of 12 outlets skipped it: awartani will be identified as 26-year-old junior at Brown.
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The Guardian spotlights families' view that it was a hate crime, while Al Jazeera stresses no hate crime charges were filed.
Conviction in Vermont
A Vermont jury convicted Jason Eaton, 51, of attempted murder for shooting three Palestinian college students in November 2023 near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, rejecting his insanity defense. The jury found Eaton guilty of three counts of attempted second-degree murder, and Eaton faces up to life in prison while sentencing has yet to be scheduled. Hisham Awartani was shot in the chest and left paralysed from the waist down, while Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid were wounded in the attack.
Eaton did not dispute that he shot the three men, and he told jurors he believed the CIA and Israel’s Mossad were transmitting messages to him through FM radio. Joshua O’Hara, the supervising attorney at the Chittenden County Public Defender Office, told jurors that Eaton believed the intelligence agencies had enlisted him to “overwatch duty” to protect a Jewish family living across the street.
Insanity claim rejected
Prosecutors rejected Eaton’s insanity defense, telling jurors that a state psychiatrist concluded Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect and that the evidence showed he intended to kill the three men. Eaton’s lawyers argued he was suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder and believed the CIA and Mossad were transmitting messages to him through FM radio. Awartani testified that Eaton approached without speaking, and Awartani said, “he pulled out a handgun and began shooting.”
Eaton stared blankly as the jury read the guilty verdict, while Awartani, in a wheelchair, and Aliahmad smiled and hugged people around them. Vermont Public said the jury rejected Eaton’s insanity defense and found him guilty of attempting to kill three Palestinian men in 2023, with jurors deliberating for two hours.
Sentencing and hate-crime
Elizabeth Price told reporters that the verdict made it clear Eaton was responsible for his actions, and she said, “They were not the words of a man confused about who he shot or why.” The three men were walking on North Prospect Street speaking a mixture of English and Arabic, with two wearing keffiyehs, moments before the shooting. Eaton faced up to life in prison and was ordered jailed pending sentencing, which will occur at a later date.
““They were not the words of a man confused about who he shot or why.””
The New York Times said the jury rejected Eaton’s argument that he was not criminally responsible because he was mentally ill, and it said the jury found him guilty of three counts of attempted second-degree murder. Prosecutor Sarah George said, “Jason Eaton, the state submits, intentionally shot three people who were simply walking down the street,” and no hate crime charges were filed.