In a Burlington, Vermont courtroom, a jury has found Jason Eaton guilty of attempted murder for shooting three young Palestinian men who were simply taking an evening walk together in November 2023. The verdict, reached after a week of testimony and deliberation, rejected Eaton's claim that delusional psychosis had severed his connection to moral responsibility. One of the three men, Hisham Awartani, will carry the physical weight of that night for the rest of his life, paralyzed from the chest down — a reminder that the consequences of violence outlast any verdict.
Vermont man convicted of shooting three Palestinian students, faces life in prison
Hisham Awartani was shot in the chest and left paralyzed from the waist down; Tahseen Aliahmad was shot in the collarbone; Kinnan Abdalhamid was shot in the right buttock.
He pulled out a handgun and began shooting without saying anything.
Mark
So the jury rejected the insanity defense entirely. What did the prosecution's psychiatrist actually say about Eaton's mental state?
Mimi
The state psychiatrist concluded he had no mental disease or defect. That's the legal threshold—the prosecution had to show he was sane enough to know right from wrong and to form intent.
Luke
But we should be careful here. One psychiatrist said one thing. The defense called psychiatric experts too, presumably saying the opposite. The jury chose to believe the prosecution's expert. That's a jury decision, not a settled medical fact.
Mimi
Fair point. The jury heard competing expert testimony and sided with the prosecution's case.
Mark
What about the hate crime angle? The shooting happened to three Palestinian students, there were calls for investigation—why no hate crime charges?
Mimi
The article doesn't explain the reasoning. It just says no hate crime charges were filed despite the initial calls for investigation.
Luke
That's a real gap. We don't know if prosecutors decided there wasn't sufficient evidence of a bias motive, or if they chose to pursue attempted murder instead, or what. It's a significant absence from the reporting.
Mark
And Awartani—he's paralyzed now. That's permanent.
Mimi
Yes. Shot in the chest, left paralyzed from the waist down. The other two were wounded but not permanently disabled in the same way.
Luke
The article doesn't tell us what happened to them after, whether they continued their studies, how they're doing now. We know the immediate injuries, but not the longer arc.
Mark
So sentencing hasn't happened yet.
Mimi
Not yet. He's in jail awaiting sentencing, which could be life in prison.
Mark
And the three of them—they were just walking, speaking Arabic, wearing keffiyehs.
Mimi
Right. That's what Awartani testified to. They were doing ordinary things when Eaton came out of his building and shot them.
Le Pouls
- Three Palestinian college students sharing a Thanksgiving walk near a Vermont campus were shot without warning by a man who emerged silently from his porch and opened fire at close range.
- One victim, Hisham Awartani, was left permanently paralyzed; the attack sent shockwaves through Palestinian American communities and reignited debates about anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian violence in the United States.
- The defense mounted a psychiatric argument — that Eaton believed the CIA and Mossad were broadcasting commands to him through FM radio, enlisting him in a delusional protective mission — but the jury was unconvinced.
- A state psychiatrist testified that Eaton had no qualifying mental disease, and prosecutors argued the methodical nature of the attack pointed to deliberate intent rather than psychotic break.
- The jury rejected the insanity defense after a week-long trial; Awartani and Aliahmad, seated in the front row, embraced those around them when the verdict was read.
- Eaton now faces potential life imprisonment at sentencing, while the absence of hate crime charges continues to cast a shadow over how the justice system has chosen to frame this case.
In a Burlington, Vermont courtroom, a jury has found Jason Eaton guilty of attempted murder for shooting three young Palestinian men who were simply taking an evening walk together in November 2023. The verdict, reached after a week of testimony and deliberation, rejected Eaton's claim that delusional psychosis had severed his connection to moral responsibility. One of the three men, Hisham Awartani, will carry the physical weight of that night for the rest of his life, paralyzed from the chest down — a reminder that the consequences of violence outlast any verdict.
On a Thanksgiving evening in Burlington, Vermont, three young Palestinian men — Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid — stepped out for a walk near the University of Vermont campus. Childhood friends from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, they had each come to the United States for college and were visiting Awartani's grandmother for the holiday. They were speaking in English and Arabic, wearing keffiyehs, smoking cigarettes, when Jason Eaton stepped off his apartment porch and, without a word, opened fire.
Awartani was shot in the chest and left paralyzed from the waist down. Aliahmad was struck in the collarbone. Abdalhamid was shot in the right buttock. All three survived, but the attack irrevocably changed the course of their lives — particularly Awartani's.
Eaton did not contest that he pulled the trigger. His defense rested on a claim of delusional psychosis: that he believed the CIA and Israel's Mossad were transmitting orders to him through FM radio, that he had been recruited for a kind of divine protective mission, and that God himself had commanded the shooting. His public defender argued this delusion absolved him of criminal responsibility.
Prosecutors countered with a state psychiatrist who found no qualifying mental disease, and argued the evidence pointed clearly to intentional conduct. After a week of testimony — including accounts from the three victims themselves — the jury rejected the insanity defense and convicted Eaton of attempted murder.
When the verdict was announced, Awartani and Aliahmad sat in the front row. They smiled and held those beside them. Eaton was remanded to custody pending a sentencing date yet to be scheduled, where he faces up to life in prison. Despite early calls for a hate crime investigation, no such charges were ever brought — a fact that continues to trouble many who followed the case.
Jason Eaton, 51, will spend the rest of his life in prison. A Vermont jury took several hours on Monday to reach that conclusion, rejecting his claim that he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity for shooting three Palestinian college students in November 2023.
The three men—Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid—were visiting Awartani's grandmother in Burlington over Thanksgiving when they decided to take a walk near the University of Vermont campus after dark. All three had grown up together in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank before coming to the United States for college. Awartani was a student at Brown University. Aliahmad attended Trinity College. Abdalhamid was enrolled at Haverford College. That evening, they were smoking cigarettes and speaking in a mix of English and Arabic. Two of them wore keffiyehs.
Eaton emerged from the porch of his apartment building and approached the group without speaking. When he was between five and ten feet away, he drew a handgun and opened fire. Awartani was shot in the chest. The bullet left him paralyzed from the waist down. Aliahmad was struck in the collarbone. Abdalhamid was shot in the right buttock. All three survived, but the attack fundamentally altered the trajectory of at least one of their lives.
Eaton did not deny pulling the trigger. His lawyers instead argued that he was suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder—that he believed the CIA and Israel's Mossad were transmitting messages to him through FM radio, commanding him to act. According to his public defender, Joshua O'Hara, Eaton thought the intelligence agencies had recruited him for "overwatch duty" to protect a Jewish family living across the street from him. He believed God was ordering him to carry out the shooting.
The prosecution presented a state psychiatrist who concluded that Eaton had no mental disease or defect that would excuse his actions. Prosecutors argued that the evidence demonstrated Eaton intended to kill the three men. The jury agreed. After a week-long trial that included testimony from the three victims and psychiatric experts called by both sides, the jury rejected the insanity defense.
When the verdict was read, Awartani and Aliahmad sat in the front row of the courtroom. They smiled and embraced the people around them. Eaton was ordered held in jail pending sentencing, a date that has not yet been scheduled. He faces up to life in prison.
Police found three shotguns and a Ruger .380-caliber handgun in Eaton's apartment. Crime laboratory testing confirmed that the Ruger was the weapon used in the shooting. The attack prompted calls for a hate crime investigation, but no hate crime charges were ever filed.
Citations marquantes
Eaton believed the CIA and Israel's Mossad were transmitting messages to him through FM radio and had enlisted him for 'overwatch duty' to protect a Jewish family.— Defense attorney Joshua O'Hara, describing Eaton's stated delusions
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Crime & Justice