Suspect arrested in Vermont shooting of three Palestinian students

A suspect has been arrested in the shooting of three Palestinian students who were ambushed by a gunman while walking to a family Thanksgiving dinner over the weekend.

Jason J Eaton, 48, was arrested on Sunday afternoon close to the scene of the attack – which is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

The Burlington Police Department said in a press release that the suspected gunman lives in an apartment building near the scene of the shooting, close to the University of Vermont campus in Burlington.

A search of his home uncovered evidence that gave law enforcement “probable cause” to believe Mr Eaton was behind the attack, police said.

It is not clear what charges the 48-year-old is facing but he is expected to appear in court for his arraignment on Monday.

The shooting unfolded on Saturday night when the three 20-year-old college students – Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmad – were walking along a street in Burlington.

The friends, who were headed to a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Mr Awartani’s grandmother, were speaking to each other in English and Arabic, according to the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Police said that two of the students were also wearing keffiyehs at the time.

The group was suddenly confronted by a man with a handgun who opened fire on them without saying a single word, police said.

The suspect, who was on foot, fired at least four rounds before fleeing the scene.

Two of the victims suffered gunshot wounds to the torso, while the third was shot in the lower extremities, officials said.

While two of the victims are in stable condition in hospital, the third is said to have suffered “much more serious injuries” and his condition remains unclear.

Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in an earlier statement that the incident was being probed as a hate crime.

“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” he said.

Te Institute for Middle East Understanding, which has spoken on behalf of the victims’ families, said that Mr Awartani is a student at Brown University, Mr Abdalhamid at Haverford College and Mr Ahmed at Trinity College.

Burlington police are expected to hold a press conference on Monday to update the public about the case.

The shooting comes at a time of increased tensions across the US amid the ongoing war in the Middle East, with antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents appearing to be on the rise.

Back on 14 October, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy named Wadea Al-Fayoume was violently stabbed to death in his home in Illinois in an attack that also hospitalised his mother.

The family’s landlord Joseph Czuba, 71, was arrested and charged with murder.

Investigators believe the little boy and his mother were targeted because they are Muslim after the landlord turned up at their front door and began arguing with his mother about the Israel-Hamas war.

Meanwhile, college campuses have become particular hotbeds amid opposing viewpoints.

In the days after the war began, a group of student organisations at Harvard University released a statement on social media arguing that Israel’s “apartheid regime” was “entirely responsible” for the war.

The letter sparked outrage and led several of America’s biggest business leaders including Bill Ackman to call for each of the signatories to be named publicly – and for companies to boycott hiring them in future.

Weeks later, on 31 October, a 21-year-old student was arrested for allegedly making violent threats towards Cornell University’s Jewish population.

Saturday’s shooting comes more than two months on from the start of the war between between Israel and Hamas, when Hamas militants stormed across the border, killing 1,400 Israelis and taking hundreds hostage in a surprise 7 October attack.

Since then, the Israeli government has retaliated with a ground and air offensive on Gaza, which have so far left over 14,000 dead, according to Palestinian officials.

In recent days, a temporary four-day truce agreement – brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt – was reached to secure the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas.

Under the terms of the deal, 50 hostages would be freed by Hamas in exchange for a four-day pause in Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza – to allow much-needed aid to reach civilians in the war-torn region – as well as the release of 150 Palestinian people being held in Israeli prisons.

So far, three groups of hostages have now been safely released – including four-year-old Abigail Edan, an Israeli-American girl whose parents were both murdered in the 7 October attacks.