The Vermont man who shot and wounded three Muslim American university students in late November made statements in support of Hamas on social-media, complicating the popular narrative that emerged in the wake of the unprovoked attack.
Jason Eaton shot the three students, all of whom were wearing the traditional Arab keffiyeh head scarf, as they were walking down a residential street in Burlington. The shooting, which left one of the men paralyzed, was immediately cited as an example of anti-Arab hate spurred by the Hamas invasion of Israel, but Eaton’s social-media history casts doubt on that conclusion.
Ten days after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, which left over a thousand dead and hundreds taken hostage, Eaton wrote on X that “the notion that Hamas is ‘evil’ for defending their state from occupation is absurd. They are owed a state. Pay up.”
Screenshots of Eaton’s social-media account, which is protected, were first obtained by Seven Days, a local news outlet in Vermont, in early December.
“What if someone occupied your country? Wouldn’t you fight them?” Eaton wrote nearly a month later in response to an article by Representative Becca Balint (D., Vt.) advocating for a cease-fire. “Brittan [sic] wouldn’t let ships with food sent by other countries into Ireland during the famine. My people starved.”
The outlet’s investigation of Eaton found he expressed a variety of political opinions, including vaccine skepticism, and described himself as a “radical citizen pa-trolling demockracy and crapitalism for oathcreepers,” an apparent nod to activists that participated in the January 6 attack. The background graphic on Eaton’s X account reads: “Libertarians want trans furrys to be able to protect their cannabis farms with unregistered machine guns.”
“[I]nterviews with those who know Eaton, and a review of his digital footprint, point to a complicated person with views not easy to pigeonhole. Sorting out his motivation, never mind proving it beyond a reasonable doubt, could be difficult,” Sasha Goldstein, the deputy news editor of the paper, wrote. Although he was never arrested, Eaton had at least two restraining orders placed against him by romantic partners and had “a history of mental illness,” one ex told the police.
Eaton’s statements and personal history cast doubt on whether his motivations for attacking the three students wearing keffiyehs, traditional Arab scarves that are a popular Palestinian symbol, was hate-based. The family members of the victims have insisted that the shooting was targeted, underscoring they have “no doubt that our sons were targeted simply for being Palestinian.”
“Millions of people in America and across the globe struggle with mental health challenges. That does not make them pick up a gun and attack people based on their identity,” the group wrote in a statement in late November. “We do not accept what this wrongfully implies about people who struggle with their mental health, nor do we accept it as justification or context for this heinous, hate-driven crime.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) highlighted Eaton’s shooting in a December 4 request to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce demanding an urgent “hearing on the rise of Islamophobia and violence against Muslim students.”
“Students expressing their support for Palestinian rights have faced extreme consequences for their activism,” the group, whose leader commended the 10/7 atrocities, wrote in their letter to Congress addressed to ranking committee members Virginia Foxx (R. N.C.) and Bobby Scott (D., Va.). “Recently, on November 25, three Palestinian college students wearing traditional Palestinian scarves were shot in Burlington, Vermont, during the Thanksgiving holiday.”
In late November, Eaton pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder. “We still do not know as much as we want to know,” Burlington police chief Jon Murad said during a press conference at the time. “But I would urge the public and you in the media to avoid making conclusions based on statements from people who know even less than we currently do. We are working hard to find out this information.”
“Although we do not yet have evidence to support a hate crime enhancement, I do want to be clear that there is no question, this was a hateful act,” prosecutor Sarah George argued.