Syracuse man arrested for shooting Palestinian college students
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A man who allegedly shot three college students of Palestinian descent this weekend in Vermont is from the Syracuse area, syracuse.com reported Monday afternoon.
Vermont police arrested 48-year-old Jason J. Eaton on Saturday in Burlington near the University of Vermont. Eaton was charged with three counts of second-degree attempted murder. He is currently being held without bail. The shooting is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
The three students shot — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad — survived the initial shooting, according to a Monday afternoon tweet from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. One student was expected to be released from the hospital Monday while the other two remain injured, the ADC wrote in the tweet.
The students were in Burlington for the weekend to visit Awartani’s grandmother for Thanksgiving. While walking outside near the University of Vermont campus, police said the students were shot and wounded by a white man with a handgun.
Eaton allegedly shot the students in front of his apartment, according to the New York Times. Two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian headdresses, at the time of the shooting. Awartani, Abdalhamid and Ali Ahmad attend Brown University, Haverford College and Trinity College, respectively.
In a press conference Monday, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said Vermont police believe Eaton arrived in Vermont from the Syracuse area sometime in the summer. Police are contacting people in Syracuse who knew Eaton, Murad said.
The ADC called on Vermont police to prosecute the shooting as a hate crime in a Monday afternoon tweet. The ADC also reached out to the United States Department of Justice and the FBI calling for an immediate hate crime investigation into the shooting.
Eaton pleaded not guilty to all three counts during his arraignment on Monday.
