Police arrested a 48-year-old man in connection with Saturday night’s shooting of three U.S. students of Palestinian descent, as the FBI began an investigation and pressure grew to focus on the possibility of a hate motive.
Relatives identified the victims, and their colleges gave updates on their medical status — all three are being treated in the hospital.
- Hisham Awartani is a junior at Brown University who, according to Brown's president, Christina H. Paxson, is being treated at a hospital and is expected to survive.
- Kinnan Abdalhamid is a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Administrators said he was recovering from a gunshot wound in the hospital.
- Tahseen Ahmed is a student at Connecticut's Trinity College, which said he was in a stable condition in a hospital.
The suspect, Jason J. Eaton was detained Sunday afternoon near the scene of the shooting. Police said in a statement that a search of his property “gave investigators and prosecutors probable cause to believe that Mr. Eaton perpetrated the shooting.”
Two of the three victims were wearing keffiyehs, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism made famous by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, when a white man with a handgun walked up and, without speaking, opened fire, according to an earlier statement Sunday from Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad.
The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee said the victims — two of of whom are U.S. citizens and the third a legal resident, according to police — were speaking in Arabic.
The organization, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on the FBI and other agencies involved to investigate the attack as a possible hate crime. By late Saturday, the bureau said it was participating in the probe.
The three were walking to the home of relatives of one of the men for a holiday weekend meal when they were attacked, police said. It happened near the University of Vermont, but the institution said the victims had no connection to the campus.
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Police arrest suspect as victims remain hospitalized
A suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in Burlington, Vermont.
Burlington police said Jason J. Eaton, 48, was detained this afternoon near the scene of the shooting. A search of his nearby apartment “gave investigators and prosecutors probable cause to believe that Mr. Eaton perpetrated the shooting,” police said in a statement. He was arrested late tonight and is expected to be arraigned tomorrow, they added.
Police earlier said the shooter, who is white, said nothing before firing at the victims. Two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, according to police, and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee said they were speaking Arabic. Police said two of the three victims, all 20 years old, are U.S. citizens and the third is a legal resident.
The victims’ families identified them as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmed. Awartani is a student at Brown University in Rhode Island, Abdalhamid is a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Ahmed is a student at Trinity College in Connecticut.
Brown University President Christina H. Paxson said Awartani was expected to survive. Haverford College said Abdalhamid was recovering from a gunshot wound at a hospital. The president of Trinity College said Ahmed was in stable condition at a hospital.
FBI says it's probing the attack
The FBI late Sunday indicated that it has been investigating the shooting, following an earlier statement that information about "a potential federal violation" would be needed to trigger its participation.
"The FBI continues to actively investigate the shooting in Burlington alongside our partners at Burlington Police Department, ATF, and several other federal, state, and local agencies," the agency's Albany, New York, office said in its latest statement.
The FBI said it has already devoted resources to the probe, including personnel and gear for computer and cellphone analysis. It asked members of the public who might have information about the attack to step forward.
Earlier, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee called on federal law enforcement to investigate the attack as a hate crime.
Witnesses said they heard gunfire and saw people on the ground
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Two witnesses said they heard gunfire last night in Burlington and were jolted by the violence.
Machara Renz, a graduate student at the University of Vermont, and Alexander Wehr, who works at a nearby middle school, had just gotten back from dinner when they heard gunfire.
"We heard four gunshots," Renz said today near the scene of the shooting. "We looked at each other and we confirmed" the sound was gunfire, she said.
She said she looked out a window and saw nothing. But when the sound of sirens got closer to the location, the pair looked outside again and saw two figures on the ground.
"We heard a man screaming in pain," Wehr said. "It was very scary."
Tensions have been high across the U.S. amid the war between Israel and Hamas. Renz noted that a recent event in Burlington organized to support Palestinians was peaceful but also attracted some people who were “spewing a lot of hate.”
The two said they were shocked and angered by the violence they witnessed.
"I feel angry for those three young men that had to experience that," Renz said. "I feel sad for the person that thought that that was the right thing to do."
The history and meaning behind the Palestinian keffiyah
While a keffiyah is a traditional scarf worn by Arabs across the Middle East, the Palestinian variation has a specific design that has become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity across the region.
Two of the students shot in Burlington were wearing the scarf at the time of the attack, police said today.
The Palestinian keffiyah, sometimes spelled kufiya, has many modernized iterations, but the original is a black and white scarf that symbolizes the Palestinian economy: block lines for trade routes, an olive leaf pattern and a fishnet design throughout.
It was frequently worn by Palestinian politician Yasser Arafat, who was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and later president of the Palestinian National Authority.
According to Hirbawi, the last textile factory producing keffiyahs in the occupied Palestinian territory, the scarf initially became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism in the 1930s, when Arabs in the region revolted against British colonialism. On its website, Hirbawi writes that the scarf means two things to Palestinians: "Palestine will live on. Palestine will be free."
The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee is calling on law enforcement, including the FBI and Justice Department, to investigate the shooting of three Palestinian men as a hate crime.
The FBI said in a statement that if "information comes to light of a potential federal violation," it is prepared to investigate.
Two of the three men, all of whom are students a colleges in the U.S., were wearing keffiyahs when they were shot, Burlington police said.
Brown organizing campus vigil for Monday
In a statement to Brown University's community today, school President Christina H. Paxson said she has asked its chaplain's office to organize a vigil Monday at the campus in Providence, Rhode Island.
One of the three victims of the Saturday night attack, Hisham Awartani, is a junior at Brown, she said. The vigil is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on the campus' Main Green.
"I call on our community to come together to condemn anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination and acts of violence and hate, and express care and empathy for one another," Paxson said in the statement.
She said relatives of the victims asked that no donations be made to fundraisers unless they are specifically organized by close family members.
Brown says victim attended university, is expected to survive
In a statement today, Brown University President Christina H. Paxson said victim Hisham Awartani, a junior at the institution, remains hospitalized and is expected to survive.
In the statement addressed to the university community, Paxson said relatives allowed her to share that Awartani is Palestinian Irish American.
"There are not enough words to express the deep anguish I feel for Hisham, his parents and family members, and his friends," Paxson said. "I know that this heinous and despicable act of violence — this latest evidence of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination and hate spiraling across this country and around the world — will leave many in our community deeply shaken."
She indicated care and support were available on campus for those in need. She also urged community members to "express care and empathy for one another."
No indication of connection to school, University of Vermont says
The University of Vermont said in a statement today that “we have no indication” that the shooting is connected to the school, cautioning that the investigation continues.
"We are saddened by reports of a shooting at approximately 6:30 pm last night on Prospect Street in Burlington near UVM, injuring three out-of-state visitors," President Suresh Garimella and Provost Patty Prelock said in the statement. "Currently, we have no indication of a connection to the university community, but the investigation is at an early stage."
The three victims were in town to visit and were not students at the university.
University police and campus safety teams are providing security in and around campus, "as is common in the wake of any significant safety incident," the university said.
"Our hearts go out to the victims and to all who are impacted by this incident. We encourage members of the UVM community to reach out for support as needed and we encourage you to support those around you," it said.
Trinity College says victim is stable
Trinity College, which one of the victims attends, said in a statement today that the community was "heartbroken."
Tahseen Ahmed, who was wounded in last night's shooting, is set to graduate from the university in 2026.
"A member of the Trinity Student Life staff went to Vermont early this morning to provide support and reports that Tahseen wants the Trinity community to know that he is in stable condition at an area hospital," President Joanne Berger-Sweeney and Joseph DiChristina, the vice president for student success and enrollment management, said in the statement.
"At this moment, please keep Tahseen and his friends in your heart."
Police presence near scene of shooting
Police tape and vehicles seen near the scene of the shooting in Burlington last night that wounded three Palestinian college students.