Devastating event that happened in Burlington Vermont. Three college students were shot and seriously injured by 48 year old Jason J. Eaton. The Burlington police reported that the case could open to be a hate crime since the students are Palestinian descent. Due to the situation happening in Israel with the Hamas war the police expected this to be the reason for the shooting. All three college students are Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad. 

They were out for a walk and went to one of the students’ relatives house when Jason Easton approached them with a gun. Two of the students were shot in the torso while another was shot in his lower extremities. The students were rushed to Vermont university medical center. Jason bought the gun used in the shooting from a firearms store and purchased it legally. He recently moved to Burlington from Syracuse last summer. The Burlington police found Jason at his apartment with his hands up and palms open and stated “I’ve been waiting for you”. Jason had his appearance in court in which he was being charged with three counts of attempted murder and his plea was not guilty.

Syracuse police said Eaton has appeared in 37 police reports since 2007. As of right now state officials do not have any evidence to support a hate crime charge. I got an opinion on a person who has been keeping up with the incident. Corenia Rivera had very interesting things to say “I hate the situation of being guilty by stereotypes. I do believe this was a hate crime. I just wish people wouldn’t judge by their culture” said Corenia. This is a very devastating time for them and their family’s. We wish them luck on their recovery.