Nov. 27 (UPI) — A suspect in Saturday’s shooting in Vermont that injured three 20-year-old Palestinian men attending U.S. universities pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder Monday.
Jason Eaton, 48, was arrested Sunday after agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives encountered him while canvassing the area of the shooting, the Burlington Police Department said.
A statement from the Police Department said officers obtained a search warrant for Eaton’s residence and collected evidence giving investigators “probable cause to believe that Mr. Eaton perpetrated the shooting.”
Eaton is being held without bail until a hearing can be scheduled in the coming days. He appeared via video before Superior Court Judge A. Gregory Rainville.
A joint statement from family members identified the victims as Hisham Awartani, a student at Brown University; Kinnan Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College; and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, a student at Trinity College.
Police said Sunday that two of the men were in stable condition and the third had serious injuries, VTDigger reported.
Police didn’t provide a motive for the shooting. Authorities were investigating the possibility of a hate crime.
Court records show that Awartani was shot in the spine, Ali Ahmad was struck in the chest and Abdalhamid was shot in the glute. Eaton faces the possibility of life in prison with a presumptive minimum term of 20 years.
The three victims were in Burlington visiting relatives of one of the men. Two of the men were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarfs, at the time of the shooting.
“My deepest condolences go out to the victims and their families,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement. “In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime.
“And I have already been in touch with federal investigatory and prosecutorial partners to prepare for that if it’s proven.”
