Police are investigating the motives of the man believed to be behind the weekend shooting at Vermont of three Palestinian-American university students, with all of the victims in intensive care at a local hospital. 

Police announced the arrest of a suspect, Jason Eaton, 48, early on Monday, after evidence collected through a search warrant gave investigators “probable cause to believe that Mr. Eaton perpetrated the shooting,” Burlington’s Police Department said. 

The incident is the “top priority” of the police force, the city’s mayor, Miro Weinberger, said in a press conference on Monday. 

“Mr. Eaton has now been arraigned and charged with triple attempted murder, charges that carry the potential for life sentences,” Mr. Weinberger said. “The investigation will continue, as will our collaboration with state and federal partners, to give our prosecutors the strongest case possible and to ensure that Mr. Eaton is held fully accountable for his actions.” 

Mr. Eaton, who is being held without bail, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Mr. Eaton’s mother, Mary Reed, told the Daily Beast that he has “had a lot of struggles in his life but he is such a kind and loving person.” She said she is “just shocked by the whole thing.”

The students, as the Sun reported, were attending a family dinner at Burlington over Thanksgiving break and wearing Palestinian scarves when they were shot.

Mr. Weinberger said he was on an “extended phone call” with President Biden leading up to the press conference Monday. 

“I hope that Burlington’s Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities see in today’s prompt arrest the city’s commitment to justice and to keeping all members of our community safe,” he said, adding that he has been “in communication with Muslim leaders about how Burlington can support their communities through this time of war and high international attention.”

The victims were identified by the head of the Palestinian Mission to the U.K., Husam Zomlot, as Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ali, and Kenan Abdulhamid. Two are American citizens, and the third is a legal resident.

Burlington’s police chief, Jon Murad, said that in his communications with the victims and their families, naming the victims was initially “not something they wanted,” so police have not done so.

“I want to acknowledge that three young men have been the victims of an unprovoked and terrible crime and that their lives have been changed forever,” Mr. Murad said. “One in particular faces a tremendous struggle and recovery with injuries that may be lifelong.”

The investigation is ongoing, and this is “only the beginning,” Mr. Murad said. The police are alleging that Mr. Eaton “committed three acts of attempted murder,” he said. Even with the arrest, he said, the police “are still working, there is more investigation to be done, and that includes trying to determine motive.”  

Mr. Murad said that during an interview with detectives, the victims said that the shooter “had not made any comments to them and had merely approached them while they were walking down the street, essentially minding their own business,” adding that the men were speaking in a mix of English and Arabic and that two were wearing Kuffiyehs. 

“They had no knowledge of this individual, had not encountered him before, he stepped off a porch and produced a firearm and began discharging that firearm,” Mr. Murad said at the press conference Monday. 

When law enforcement knocked on Mr. Eaton’s door, he had his “palms up at waist height and stated something to the effect of, ‘I’ve been waiting for you,’” Mr. Murad said before the suspect repeatedly said that he wanted a lawyer. Police then obtained a search warrant, working closely with the state’s attorney office and U.S. attorney’s office, in which they found a firearm that tests have connected to “the casings that were recovered at the scene of the shooting.” 

One of the victims of the shooting, Hisham Awartani, is a Brown University student. A university group, Jews for Ceasefire Now, says he is a “friend and classmate.” The group was the subject of national attention after the arrest of 20 of its members earlier this month following an anti-Israel sit-in, as the Sun reported.

“Our hearts break at the news of the shooting of three Palestinian students in Burlington, VT, including our friend and classmate Hisham Awartaini,” the group said, adding that Brown has “not protected Palestinian students on campus, and have enabled the fear mongering that leads to anti-Palestinian violence.”

Mr. Awartani’s uncle, Rich Price, said Monday that the shooting “speaks to the level of hatred that exists in some parts of this country.”