By Melinda Kukaj, Charlie Simmons and Annie Rudolph
BURLINGTON, VT – Nearly a week ago, Nov. 25, three Palestinian college students were shot and seriously injured while visiting relatives over the Thanksgiving holiday after the shooter, identified as 48-year-old Jason J. Eaton, fired at least four rounds at the students, who were innocently walking down the sidewalk, wearing Keffiyehs (traditional Palestinian scarves), and speaking a mixture of English and Arabic.
While an investigation is ongoing, it is believed by both local and federal officials, activist groups, and communities that this horrific attack was fueled by hate and influenced by the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, according to multiple news sources.
The victims’ families issued a joint statement through the Institute for Middle East Understanding identifying the victims as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, who attend Brown University, Haverford College and Trinity College respectively, according to NBC News.
Awartani’s uncle Rich Price, who the young men were staying with over the holiday, explained they had just returned from a birthday party for Price’s eight-year-old twins when the three men left their home to get some fresh air, according to a Burlington Press Conference.
It was then that the recently identified suspect unloaded his gun, with bullets entering the men’s torsos and lower extremities, Price said in an interview for BBC.
Price added, in the BBC video, Awartani had been shot in his clavicle and through his hand. Price explained that the bullet that shattered his nephew’s clavicle is lodged in his spine, currently leaving him paralyzed in his legs.
Awartani’s mother, Elizabeth Price, revealed in a WCAX interview, “He may in the next week or so be moved into a rehabilitation facility because he has an incomplete spinal injury, which means he currently can’t move his legs.” The other two students were also badly wounded.
Eaton was detained and arrested less than 24 hours after the shooting, said Vermont Public BBC, noting a police affidavit reported Eaton came to the door with his hands held out and told officers, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Burlington Police Chief Murad told reporters Eaton was nervous but his demeanor presented “something of a lack of affect,” said NBC News.
Eaton appeared in court via video from jail Monday, facing three counts of attempted murder and a potential life sentence in prison, reported NBC, adding Eaton pleaded not guilty and was ordered to be held without bail and that Eaton moved from Vermont to Syracuse and purchased the alleged gun in Vermont.
Burlington’s Mayor, Miro Weinberger, condemned the “horrific unprovoked attack,” calling it “one of the most shocking and disturbing events in the city’s history, calling for the city to “stand together, to support these victims, their families, and communities with love and kindness” at a news conference.
Chief Murad echoed these sentiments during the press conference and admitted that “in this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime.”
Weinberger also said that he had spoken with President Joe Biden, who released a statement regarding the shooting on Monday stating he was “horrified” by the atrocity and that there is “no place for violence or hate in America.”
Sentiments from communities in support of the victims have condemned this attack as hateful and targeted, but intricate legalities surrounding hate crimes prove an official conviction on these grounds to be a much more difficult task, according to news reports.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, who said law enforcement officials do not yet have evidence to support a hate crime charge, which under Vermont law must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, conceded, “I do want to be clear that there is no question that this was a hateful act,” according to the Washington Post.
Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the attack and its implications, saying “the fear is that this type of hatred that we’re seeing is taking place all over America. We’re seeing an increase, not only in Islamophobia, but in antisemitism as well, and this is something we’ve got to get a handle on,” said WCAX.
Hate crimes act as an enhancement to a charge in Vermont and apply to someone whose crime is motivated by “in whole or in part, by the victim’s actual or perceived protected category. That includes race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age, service in the U.S. Armed Forces or the National Guard and disability. Prosecutors may seek increased penalties for hate crimes, including longer jail time or higher fines,” according to The Associated Press.
BPD Chief Murad told CNN this “absolutely was a hateful act. But whether or not we can cross the legal threshold in order to determine that it is a hate crime is a different matter,” said CNN.
Communities across the country have been impacted by the shooting, and at Brown University, which one of the three young men, Awartani, attended, students wore Keffiyehs to honor their wounded classmate, reported NBC.
NBC reported Awartania wrote his own statement discussing the attack, which was read aloud at a vigil on Monday organized by Brown students. Awartania drew a connection between the violence he had experienced and the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, saying “this hideous crime did not happen in a vacuum.
“As much as I appreciate the love of every single one of you here today, I am but one casualty in a much wider conflict. Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services which saved my life here would have likely been withheld by the Israeli army. The soldier who would have shot me would go home and never be convicted,” said NBC.
In Burlington, at the University of Vermont (UVM), students marched across campus and held a “die in” in a University building to send a message “both symbolically and aesthetically.” The students organizing the protest claimed they were trying to draw attention to not only the three young men who were shot, but the “thousands who have been killed in occupied Palestine,” according to UVM Students for Justice in Palestine.
The University of Vermont also issued an email to its students, faculty, and staff expressing condolences to the victims and their families while urging the community to “pay close attention to the sources and authenticity of information received about this incident” and asking recipients to “do their part in helping to avoid speculation as the investigation progresses.”
The University also promised to heighten security measures around campus. Student disappointment and outrage quickly spread regarding the University’s failure to appropriately address community fears, ongoing genocide, and the commonly understood hatred leading to this violent attack, with UVM Students for Justice in Palestine (UVM SJP) declaring that “we have warned that the UVM administration’s deliberate lack of acknowledgement of genocide in Palestine and failure to support students would have consequences for us at home.”
In their Instagram statement, the UVM SJP group called upon the community and insisted “we must do everything we can to support the survivors of this crime. Our community must stand with Palestinians now more than ever. It is a matter of life and death.”
A similar frustration was conveyed by students at Brown University, captured by the University’s Arab society President Talia Sawiri and her statement to NBC that read, “We’ve been saying this for six, seven weeks and the fact that even still even after a student, a Palestinian student, is shot, this university cannot condemn the kind of state sanctioned violence and the killing of Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank territories is really sad,” said Sawiri.
The shooting calls into question the safety of Palestinian and Muslim individuals in the U.S., amidst the current turmoil of the Israel and Palestine conflict overseas, according to Price, Hisham Awartani’s uncle, who added “it is quite evident that these boys were targeted because of how they looked, what language they spoke and how they dressed.”
Despite Burlington being well-known as a progressive and inclusive town, this attack speaks to the intrusiveness of the war occurring overseas and the widespread fear and violence people are experiencing globally, added Price, arguing, “To have them come stay with me for Thanksgiving and have something like this happen speaks to the level of civic vitriol, speaks to the level of hatred that exists in some corners of this country. It speaks to a sickness of gun violence that exists in this country,” according to WCAX).
