Vermont [US], November 27 (ANI): The suspect in the killing of three Palestinian college students in Burlington, Vermont, was arrested on Sunday (local time), according to CNN.
The Burlington Police Department said in a news release that Jason J Eaton, 48 was arrested near the scene of the attack. A search of Eaton’s home uncovered evidence that gave investigators “probable cause to believe that Eaton perpetrated the shooting.”
Authorities had been investigating whether the shooting may have been a hate crime, officials said, but they did not go into any detail on what charges the suspect is facing as of now.
Eaton is expected to be arraigned in court on Monday. Police are also planning to hold a news conference Monday to discuss the case, according to CNN.
According to information, the students, all 20 years old were walking on Prospect Street after visiting a relative in Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday when “they were confronted by a white man with a handgun.”
“The victims, two of whom are US citizens and one a legal resident, were taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center for medical care”, according to a statement issued by the police on Sunday, as reported by CNN.
“Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled on foot,” police said after the attack on Saturday evening.
Two of the students were in stable condition over the weekend but the third received “much more serious injuries,” police said, noting two were shot in the torso and another in the lower extremities.
The students shot were identified as Hisham Awartani, a student at Brown University in Rhode Island; Kinnan Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania; and Tahseen Ahmad, a student at Trinity College in Connecticut, according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding, which has provided statements on behalf of the victims’ families.
Families of the victims as well as numerous civil rights groups continue to urge investigators to carefully examine whether the shooting was a hate crime, as the attack came amid a reported rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias incidents in the US since the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas ignited last month.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said investigators were considering whether the attack may have been motivated by hate. “That there is an indication this shooting could have been motivated by hate is chilling, and this possibility is being prioritized in the investigation,” Weinberger said in a statement.
“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” reported CNN citing Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad, in an earlier news release.
An attorney for the victims’ families, Abed Ayoub, said he believes the students were targeted, in part, because two of them were wearing keffiyehs – traditional Palestinian scarves.
“The suspect walked up to them and shot them. They weren’t robbed, they weren’t mugged,” Ayoub said on “CNN Newsroom” Sunday before the arrest was announced. “It was a targeted shooting and a targeted crime.”
The FBI has been investigating alongside local police and is providing resources, including computer and cell phone analysis, victims services and other forensic tools, the agency’s field office in Albany, New York, said.
Ballistic evidence was recovered from the scene to be run through a federal database, police said. Investigators also worked to interview witnesses and canvas the neighborhood for a second time. (ANI)
