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A Vermont man has been found guilty of attempted murder for shooting three Palestinian university students nearly three years ago, with a jury rejecting his claim that he was legally insane, according to the BBC.
Jason Eaton, 51, did not deny carrying out the shooting but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He now awaits sentencing and could face life in prison.
Three students were attacked near the University of Vermont
The November 2023 attack left Hisham Awartani paralysed from the waist down. Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid were also wounded.
The week-long trial included testimony from the three students, who are now 23, as well as psychiatrists called by the defence and prosecution. Awartani attended the proceedings in a wheelchair.
The Associated Press reported that Eaton stared blankly as the verdict was read. Awartani and Aliahmad smiled and hugged people around them.
Defence cited alleged voices and psychosis
Eaton’s lawyers argued that his mental health had deteriorated after he lost his job at a credit union several weeks before the shooting. They said he had entered a state of psychosis and believed that the CIA and Mossad were communicating with him through a radio broadcast.
“He believed he’d been instructed to do this by a government agency or God,” defence attorney Joshua O’Hara said.
The shooting took place near Eaton’s home as the three men were walking and speaking a mixture of Arabic and English while wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves. It occurred the month after the start of the Israel-Gaza war, amid heightened concerns about Islamophobia and antisemitism in the United States.
Abdalhamid was a student at Haverford College, Awartani attended Brown University in Rhode Island and Aliahmad studied at Trinity College in Connecticut. The three had previously attended school together in Ramallah and were visiting Awartani’s grandmother for Thanksgiving.
