VERMONT JURY CONVICTS MAN OF ATTEMPTED MURDER OF PALESTINIAN STUDENTS

A jury in Vermont has convicted Jason Eaton of attempted murder over a November 2023 shooting near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, rejecting his defence that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. The attack left Hisham Awartani paralysed from the waist down and wounded his friends Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid. Eaton, who faces up to life in prison, did not dispute that he was the shooter. He has been ordered held in jail pending sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.

Eaton's defence said he had a delusional psychotic disorder and believed the CIA and Israel's Mossad were transmitting orders to him through FM radio, and that God was commanding him to protect a Jewish family living nearby. Joshua O'Hara, a supervising attorney at the Chittenden County Public Defender Office representing Eaton, told jurors his client believed the agencies had assigned him "overwatch duty". Prosecutors said a state psychiatrist had found Eaton had no mental disease or defect, and argued the evidence showed he intended to kill the three men. The trial included testimony from the three victims and psychiatric experts called by both sides.

In a joint statement, the families of the three men said "justice has been rendered for Hisham, Kinnan and Tahseen", adding that after three years of sorrow, loss and struggle, they finally felt relief. They said the verdict could not undo what happened or erase their trauma, but confirmed that Eaton was responsible for his actions. The families said Eaton had used "hateful" words to describe their sons during the trial, and that he had targeted them because of his own prejudices. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled.