A Vermont man accused of shooting three Palestinian college students in 2023 is on trial for attempted murder, with his defence centred on his claim that he believed the CIA and Israel’s Mossad had ordered him to carry out the attack.
Jason Eaton, 51, has pleaded not guilty but does not dispute that he was the gunman who opened fire on Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid near his home in Burlington in November 2023.
Eaton told investigators and his lawyers that he believed messages from the CIA and Mossad were being transmitted to him through radio broadcasts. He also said he believed God was instructing him to protect Jewish neighbours living across the street.
His lawyers are using those claims as part of an insanity defence, arguing that Eaton was suffering from a delusional disorder and did not understand that his actions were wrong at the time.
Prosecutors dispute that account. They have told jurors that a state psychiatrist concluded Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect and that evidence will show he intended to kill the three students.
The three victims were 20 at the time of the shooting and had grown up in the West Bank. They had become friends while attending school in Ramallah before moving to the United States for university.
The students were walking near the University of Vermont campus during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend when Eaton opened fire.
Awartani was shot in the chest and suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralysed. Aliahmad was struck in the collarbone, while Abdalhamid was shot in the buttock.
All three survived and testified during the opening days of the trial.
The shooting occurred weeks after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war and prompted calls for authorities to investigate whether the attack was motivated by anti-Palestinian or anti-Arab hatred. No hate-crime charges were filed.
Police recovered a Ruger .380-calibre handgun from Eaton’s apartment that investigators identified as the weapon used in the shooting. Three shotguns were also found inside the residence.
If convicted of the attempted murder charges, Eaton could face up to life in prison. If he is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he could instead be ordered to undergo mental-health treatment.
The trial is expected to examine Eaton’s mental state at the time of the shooting, as well as competing accounts of what led him to open fire on the three students.
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