Vermont man found guilty of shooting three Palestinian students in 2023

Jason Eaton, a 51-year-old man from Vermont, has been found guilty of shooting three Palestinian students in 2023. The victims, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid, and Kenan Abdulhamid, were on their way to a family dinner when Eaton opened fire. The attack left Awartani paralyzed from the chest down. Eaton was charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder, and the jury rejected his claim that he was suffering from delusions at the time of the incident.

Prosecutors stated that Eaton believed voices, which he thought were from CIA agents, instructed him to carry out the attack to protect a Jewish family in his neighborhood. The victims, all wearing keffiyehs, were shot while speaking in Arabic. Eaton's mother, Elizabeth Price, expressed relief at the verdict, saying it affirmed that her son is responsible for his actions.

However, the families criticized the decision not to classify the attack as a hate crime, noting that recent hate crime charges in Vermont only apply when a defendant explicitly uses slurs during the crime. The victims' presence in the courtroom, along with other observers wearing keffiyehs, was ordered to be removed by the judge due to concerns about their impact on the jury.