Police have revealed eerie new details about the arrest of a suspect accused of shooting three Palestinian students near the University of Vermont campus.
Jason J Eaton, 48, was arrested on Sunday afternoon in Burlington close to the scene of the attack – which is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
He is suspected of ambushing three 20-year-old college students – Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmad – as they walked to a family Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night. The friends were speaking to each other in English and Arabic, police said, and two of them were wearing keffiyehs at the time.
Mr Eaton appeared in court on Monday for arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder.
Burlington Police offered an update on the case at a press conference shortly after the arraignment.
They revealed that Mr Eaton apparently did not leave his home following the shooting nearby. When police knocked on his door on Sunday, he allegedly said: “I’ve been waiting for you.”
