A Vermont man is on trial for shooting three Palestinian students, claiming he was acting on orders from the CIA and Mossad. Jason Eaton, 51, said he was instructed via FM radio by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies and that God commanded him to protect his Jewish neighbors. Eaton is facing attempted murder charges in a case that has drawn attention in Burlington, Vermont, and in the West Bank, where the three wounded men—Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid—grew up as schoolmates in Ramallah before moving to the U.S. for college. The November 2023 shooting occurred weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war and led to calls for a hate crime investigation, though no such charges were filed. Questions remain about whether anti-Palestinian animus, an altered mental state, or other factors motivated Eaton to open fire on the three men, who were all 20 at the time. Eaton has pleaded not guilty but does not dispute that he was the shooter. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison. If found not guilty by reason of insanity, he could be ordered to undergo mental health treatment. His defense lawyer, Joshua O’Hara, stated that Eaton was suffering from a delusional, psychotic disorder after losing his job at a credit union two weeks before the shooting. O’Hara said Eaton believed he was hearing messages from the CIA while listening to a local NPR affiliate, which initially encouraged him but later instructed him to "go out and shoot somebody." Prosecutor Sally Adams said a state psychiatrist concluded Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect. Evidence shows Eaton intended to kill the men, was not legally justified in shooting them, and does not meet the test of legal insanity, according to Adams. Authorities found three shotguns in Eaton's apartment and a Ruger .380-caliber handgun, which crime lab testing concluded was the gun used in the shooting. Eaton had purchased the gun seven months earlier from a Vermont gun store. Awartani, Aliahmad, and Abdalhamid, now 23, testified about their holiday weekend visit to Awartani’s grandmother’s house, a trip to a bowling alley to celebrate his twin cousins’ birthday, and a walk near the University of Vermont campus after dusk that ended in bloodshed. Awartani said they were smoking cigarettes and speaking a mix of English and Arabic. Two of them said they were wearing traditional Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs. Awartani said he first noticed Eaton standing on a porch as they approached the apartment house where he lived. Within seconds, Eaton was off the porch and walking toward them. His face was expressionless and he didn’t say anything. As Eaton got to about five to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters) away, "he pulled out a handgun and started shooting at us," said Awartani, who was paralyzed from the waist down in the shooting and now uses a wheelchair.