On Monday, Nov. 27, Jason Eaton, a 48-year-old investment adviser and broker, was charged with shooting three Palestinian students in Vermont over the weekend.
According to court documents cited in multiple reports, investigators treating Saturday’s gun violence in Burlington, Vermont, as a suspected hate-motivated crime said two of the three men recounted wearing black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves at the time of the track.
According to one of them, they were conversing in a mix of English and Arabic when the gunman confronted them with the weapon outside his apartment.
Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid were reportedly strolling near the University of Vermont, about a block from Awartani’s grandmother’s house, when Jason Eaton confronted them outside his apartment and opened fire before fleeing the scene.
Eaton was arrested on Sunday after an ATF agent knocked on his door while canvassing the neighborhood, according to a police affidavit.
The gunman allegedly approached the agent with his hands outstretched, palms upturned, and said, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Jason Eaton has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder
Authorities allegedly discovered a handgun, ammunition that matched the casings discovered at the crime scene, two shotguns, and a 22-caliber rifle.
The victims of Palestinian descent, who are undergraduate students in their twenties, are still in critical condition in the hospital after being shot in the spine, buttocks, and chest.
Eaton has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder.
Eaton had several social media accounts, all of which had been deleted or locked
Jason Eaton, a Vermont native, has a diverse resume that includes work as a broker, investment adviser, assistant scoutmaster, farmer, research assistant, and ski instructor, according to multiple reports.
The suspect, who attended the University of Idaho for a bachelor’s degree in general studies with a focus on natural resource ecology and conservation biology, was seven credits short of graduating in 2001, according to the Daily Beast.
Eaton also worked as a research assistant at Harvard Forest, a 4000-acre laboratory in Petersham, Massachusetts, during his college years.
According to the Daily Beast, the suspect became an investment adviser representative in 2006, managing nearly 100 clients and $7 million in assets.
According to Vice, between 2017 and 2021, Eaton was also registered as an assistant Scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America local unit in Upstate New York.
Vice discovered that the suspect had several social media accounts, all of which had been deleted or locked.
In an archived version of an X (formerly known as Twitter) account, the suspect identified himself as a “dad” and “part-time farmer.” Eaton allegedly peddled conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines in one of the posts in March 2022.
In the archived account, “rdkl,” the suspect identified himself as a “reformed broker on the ADHD/ASD spectrum.”
Meanwhile, Eaton described himself on another X account as a “radical citizen” who patrols “democracy and capitalism for oath creepers.”
The victims reportedly went to school together in Ramallah, West Bank
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Daily Beast, Jason Eaton’s mother revealed that her son has previously struggled with mental health issues.
Mary Reed, the suspect’s mother, also stated that her son is a “very religious person” who frequently reads the Bible and has connections with several religious figures.
“Jason has had a lot of struggles in his life, but he is such a kind and loving person. I am just shocked by the whole thing.”
Hisham Awartani is a student at Brown University in Rhode Island, according to the victims’ families quoted by Reuters. Aliahmad attends Trinity College in Connecticut, while Abdalhamid attends Haverford College in Pennsylvania.
The victims reportedly went to school together in Ramallah, West Bank. Two of the victims were US citizens, while the third was a US resident.
