Update, September 30, 2026: Jury Convicts Vermont Man in 2023 Shooting of Three Ramallah Friends School Grads
Last Monday, September 21, at a courthouse in Burlington, Vt., a jury found Jason Eaton guilty of attempted murder, PBS NewsHour reported. Eaton could be incarcerated for life; a sentencing date is not set.
The three shooting victims—Hisham Awartani, Tasheen Ahmed, and Kinnan Abdalhamid—were graduates of Ramallah Friends School, according to a post on the school’s Facebook page. At the time of the attack, Awartani was a student at Brown University in Rhode Island; Ahmed attended Trinity College in Connecticut; and Abdalhamid studied at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. The men were all 20 years old when Eaton shot them.
At the time of the shooting, the three men were speaking a combination of English and Arabic; two of them were wearing keffiyehs, Palestinian scarves, according to Vermont Public Radio.
Authorities investigated the attack as a hate crime, according to the New York Times. However, prosecutors concluded that they did not have enough evidence to support a hate crime charge under Vermont law, Vermont Public Radio reported. Vermont does not have a separate hate crime charge, but crimes determined to be motivated by bias can result in longer prison terms.
The three men testified in Eaton’s trial, including Awartani who uses a wheelchair after the shooting paralyzed him from the waist down, Vermont Public Radio reported.
The jurors rejected an insanity defense in which Eaton’s attorneys said he believed he was following commands from Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel, and the CIA broadcast on FM radio, NewsChannel 10 reported.
Original story, November 28, 2023
Ramallah Friends School Graduates Shot in Vermont
Three Palestinian graduates of Ramallah Friends School were shot on Saturday, November 25, in Burlington, Vt., in an attack authorities are investigating as a hate crime, according to the New York Times and a Facebook post on the school’s page. Hisham Awartani sustained a gunshot wound in the back; Tasheen Ahmed endured being shot in the chest; and Kinnan Abdalhamid suffered minor injuries, according to the Facebook post. Awartani is a student at Brown University in Rhode Island; Ahmed attends Trinity College in Connecticut; and Abdalhamid studies at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. The three remained in the hospital as of November 27. The longtime friends were walking to Awartani’s grandmother’s home in Burlington for Thanksgiving dinner when they were shot.
Left to right: Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdal Hamid, and Tahseen Aliahmad at the Ramallah Friends School graduation. Photos by the school’s photographer, 2021.
Police arrested Jason J. Eaton, 48, of Burlington, after searching his apartment, according to the New York Times. The shootings took place in front of Eaton’s building, the New York Times reported.
Two of the men were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian head coverings, and the group spoke a mixture of English and Arabic, according to the New York Times.
Eaton pled not guilty at a November 27 arraignment, according to the New York Times.
Two of the men are U.S. citizens and one is a legal resident, the Washington Post reports.
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