{
  "id": "2023-11-25-university-of-vermont-prospect-street-shooting",
  "slug": "university-of-vermont-prospect-street-shooting-2023-11-25",
  "institution": {
    "name": "University of Vermont",
    "shortName": "UVM",
    "state": "VT",
    "type": "public-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "CatAlert",
    "alertPlatform": "Rave Mobile Safety",
    "enrollment": 14000
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2023-11-25",
    "type": "shooting",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "headline": "Three visiting college students shot near campus; investigated as a possible hate crime",
    "headlinePublic": "Three visiting college students shot near campus; investigated as a possible hate crime",
    "summary": "On the evening of November 25, 2023, [three 20-year-old college students of Palestinian descent, visiting Burlington for Thanksgiving and wearing keffiyehs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_shooting_of_Palestinian_students_in_Burlington,_Vermont), were shot on North Prospect Street, [yards from the University of Vermont's Howe Library](https://www.uvm.edu/president/news/shooting-incident-north-prospect-street-november-25). The University issued a terse seven-word CatAlert. The three victims were identified as Hisham Awartani (Brown), Kinnan Abdalhamid (Haverford), and Tahseen Ahmad (Trinity). [48-year-old Jason Eaton was arrested the next day](https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/26/us/palestinian-students-shot-burlington-vermont/index.html) and the shooting was investigated as a possible hate crime.",
    "outcome": "All three students survived but Hisham Awartani was paralyzed from the chest down due to a spinal injury. Jason Eaton was arrested approximately 24 hours after the shooting and charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder; he has been held without bail since November 2023. As of late 2024, [Chittenden County State's Attorney Sarah George said there was insufficient evidence to add a state hate-crime enhancement](https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-11-12/man-accused-shooting-palestinian-students-burlington-unlikely-face-hate-crime-charges) and no federal hate-crime charges have been filed; community groups have pushed for hate-crime classification but prosecutors say no bias-motive evidence has emerged. The shooting drew international attention and prompted President Joe Biden to call the victims' families.",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 3
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestampApprox": "Approximately 6:45 PM EST on November 25, 2023, shortly after the 6:30 PM shooting",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "Shooting on N Prospect St. in Burlington",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.the-college-reporter.com/three-palestinian-students-shot-in-burlington-vt/2023/12/",
      "sourceDescription": "The College Reporter quoted the verbatim automated CatAlert text students received the night of the shooting",
      "annotations": [
        "Sent shortly after the 6:30 PM EST shooting on North Prospect Street; the entire SMS was just these seven words with no additional detail",
        "Students quoted in The College Reporter criticized the alert as 'lackluster and bare,' offering no guidance on whether the shooter was still at large in Burlington",
        "Burlington Police led the investigation rather than UVM Police because the shooting occurred just off the official UVM property line",
        "CatAlert is the University of Vermont's emergency notification system, which uses the Rave Mobile Safety platform to push SMS, email, and voice messages to subscribers"
      ],
      "characterCount": 40
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "follow-up",
      "timestampApprox": "Morning of November 26, 2023 EST: joint statement issued by UVM President Suresh Garimella and Provost Patty Prelock the day after the shooting",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "We are saddened by reports of a shooting at approximately 6:30 pm last night on Prospect Street in Burlington near UVM, injuring three out-of-state visitors. Currently, we have no indication of a connection to the university community, but the investigation is at an early stage. Local news outlets are reporting that the victims are men of Palestinian descent. The motive is not yet known. While there is no specific threat to the UVM community at this time, an assailant has not yet been identified, and out of an abundance of caution, UVM Police Services and our campus safety teams are enhancing security operations in and around campus.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.uvm.edu/president/news/shooting-incident-north-prospect-street-november-25",
      "sourceDescription": "UVM Office of the President: 'Shooting incident on North Prospect Street, November 25,' joint statement from President Suresh Garimella and Provost Patty Prelock",
      "annotations": [
        "Issued the morning after the shooting; the statement explicitly identified the victims by Palestinian descent based on local news reporting at the time",
        "The phrase 'an abundance of caution' justified enhanced UVM Police Services patrols even though the assailant had not been identified and the off-campus location did not technically require a Clery emergency notification",
        "Did not yet characterize the attack as potentially bias-motivated, the Burlington Police later said they were investigating bias as a possible motive but as of November 2024 prosecutors had said evidence did not support a state hate-crime enhancement",
        "Joint Garimella-Prelock byline reflected the institutional 'all-of-leadership' posture UVM uses for high-impact safety incidents"
      ],
      "characterCount": 641
    }
  ],
  "context": "On the evening of [November 25, 2023, three 20-year-old college students of Palestinian descent: Hisham Awartani (Brown University), Kinnan Abdalhamid (Haverford College), and Tahseen Ahmad (Trinity College)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_shooting_of_Palestinian_students_in_Burlington,_Vermont), were shot at approximately 6:30 PM EST while walking on North Prospect Street in Burlington, Vermont. The three were visiting one victim's grandmother for Thanksgiving and were wearing keffiyehs to express solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war. They were two blocks from the University of Vermont's central campus and yards from the Howe Library when a white man with a handgun confronted them and fired four rounds without speaking. The [University of Vermont issued a terse CatAlert](https://www.the-college-reporter.com/three-palestinian-students-shot-in-burlington-vt/2023/12/) that read only 'Shooting on N Prospect St. in Burlington,' which students later criticized as offering no protective guidance. UVM President Suresh Garimella followed with a [community email](https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/three-people-shot-near-uvm-campus-in-burlington-police-say-39596499/). [48-year-old Jason Eaton was arrested the next afternoon at his apartment one block from the shooting site](https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/26/us/palestinian-students-shot-burlington-vermont/index.html) and charged with three counts of attempted second-degree murder. The shooting drew international attention given the Gaza war context and the keffiyehs the victims were wearing. Awartani was paralyzed from the chest down due to a spinal injury; Abdalhamid and Ahmad were treated and released. The case is significant for the campus alert archive because it illustrates the responsibility a university bears when a violent crime occurs immediately adjacent to but not technically on campus property, a particularly common scenario at urban-edge institutions like UVM.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "The shooting occurred two blocks from UVM's central campus and yards from the Howe Library, but on Burlington city property, illustrating the alert system's role in adjacent-property incidents",
    "All three victims survived; Hisham Awartani sustained spinal injuries causing paralysis from the chest below",
    "The arrest came approximately 24 hours after the shooting, with Eaton apprehended one block from the shooting site",
    "Despite community calls for hate-crime classification, the Chittenden County State's Attorney determined as of November 2024 that there was insufficient evidence of bias motive to add a hate-crime enhancement to the attempted-murder charges; no federal hate-crime charges have been filed",
    "UVM issued a CatAlert about the shooting even though it occurred on adjacent Burlington city property rather than on campus, a notable institutional decision"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Shooting incident on North Prospect Street, November 25 - UVM Office of the President",
      "url": "https://www.uvm.edu/president/news/shooting-incident-north-prospect-street-november-25",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Three Palestinian Students Shot in Burlington, VT - The College Reporter",
      "url": "https://www.the-college-reporter.com/three-palestinian-students-shot-in-burlington-vt/2023/12/",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "2023 shooting of Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont - Wikipedia",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_shooting_of_Palestinian_students_in_Burlington,_Vermont",
      "type": "other"
    },
    {
      "title": "3 people shot in Vermont identified as Palestinian college students - CNN",
      "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/26/us/palestinian-students-shot-burlington-vermont/index.html",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Three People Shot Near UVM Campus in Burlington, Police Say - Seven Days",
      "url": "https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/three-people-shot-near-uvm-campus-in-burlington-police-say-39596499/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Three Palestinian American students injured in Burlington shooting - WCAX",
      "url": "https://www.wcax.com/2023/11/26/police-say-three-shot-burlington/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Burlington shooting victims are three Palestinian American students - My Champlain Valley",
      "url": "https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/local-news/three-people-shot-in-burlington-near-uvm-campus/",
      "type": "local-media"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "shooting",
    "off-campus-incident",
    "vermont",
    "uvm",
    "burlington",
    "hate-crime",
    "palestinian-students",
    "thanksgiving",
    "catalert",
    "international-attention",
    "gaza-war-era"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-03",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-06-01",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}