A jury in Burlington, Vermont, has convicted Jason Eaton, 51, of attempted murder for shooting three Palestinian college students in November 2023, rejecting his defence that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. Eaton faces up to life in prison for the attack, which took place near the University of Vermont campus and left Hisham Awartani paralysed from the waist down, while his friends Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid sustained gunshot wounds. The jury deliberated for several hours following a week-long trial before delivering its verdict. Eaton was ordered jailed pending sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.

Eaton did not dispute being the shooter. His lawyers argued he was suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder, claiming he believed the CIA and Israel's intelligence agency Mossad were transmitting orders to him through FM radio — first encouraging, then commanding him to shoot someone. His defence team said he also believed God was directing him to protect a Jewish family living across the street. Prosecutors countered that a state psychiatrist had concluded Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect, and that the evidence demonstrated clear intent to kill. Authorities found three shotguns in Eaton's apartment along with a Ruger .380-calibre handgun that crime laboratory testing identified as the weapon used in the attack — a gun Eaton had purchased seven months earlier.

The three victims, now 23, grew up together as schoolmates in Ramallah, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, before moving to the United States for university. They were visiting Awartani's grandmother in Burlington over the Thanksgiving holiday when they went for an evening walk. Awartani, then a student at Brown University in Rhode Island, testified that they were smoking cigarettes and speaking a mix of English and Arabic, with two of them wearing keffiyehs — traditional Palestinian scarves. He said Eaton stepped off his porch and approached them in silence before drawing a handgun and opening fire at close range. Awartani was struck in the chest and paralysed; Aliahmad, a student at Trinity College in Connecticut, was shot in the collarbone; and Abdalhamid, attending Haverford College near Philadelphia, was shot in the right buttock.

The attack, which occurred weeks after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, prompted widespread calls for a hate crime investigation. However, no hate crime charges were ultimately filed, leaving unresolved questions about what motivated Eaton — whether anti-Palestinian sentiment, a severely altered mental state, or a combination of factors. As the verdict was read, Awartani and Aliahmad, seated in the front row of the courtroom, smiled and embraced those around them. The case drew attention well beyond Vermont, resonating deeply in the West Bank communities where the three men were raised.