Sometime broker charged in Vermont shootings

The man charged with shooting three college students over the holiday weekend in Vermont has had a peripatetic, on-again, off-again career in the retail securities industry, working as a registered broker at five different firms over more than two decades.

Jason J. Eaton, the accused shooter, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges Monday and was ordered held without bond by a judge, according to Reuters and multiple reports. The three college students are of Palestinian descent and 20 years old. Two are U.S. citizens and the third is a legal U.S. resident.

The shooting occurred in Burlington on Saturday.

Eaton's on-and-off career in the securities industry most recently had him working at CUSO Financial Services in Williston, Vermont; he was registered at CUSO from Jan. 17 of this year till earlier this month, according to his BrokerCheck report.

"Jason Eaton worked less than a year at CUSO Financial and his employment had been terminated on November 8, 2023," a company spokesperson wrote in an email. "We are horrified by the shooting and are cooperating with law enforcement as they investigate."

It's not clear why Eaton was terminated from CUSO.

Prior to that, Eaton had brief stints at TD Ameritrade Inc. and Edward Jones between 2018 and 2021. His longest stint at any one firm was from 2006 to 2012, when he was registered with Cadaret Grant & Co. Inc. in Liverpool, New York, near Syracuse. Eaton started his work in the securities industry with Equity Services Inc. in 2002.

Police have said investigators are treating Saturday evening's gun violence in the heart of Vermont's largest city as a suspected hate-motivated crime, according to Reuters. Two of the three men who were shot recounted that they were wearing black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, and one said they were conversing in a mix of English and Arabic when the gunman confronted them, according to charging documents filed in court, Reuters reported.

The three friends — identified in court documents as Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid — remained under medical care on Monday with gunshot wounds to the spine, chest and buttocks, respectively, Reuters reported.

All three are undergraduate students at colleges in other cities but were staying with Awartani and his relatives in Burlington for the Thanksgiving holiday, according to Reuters. Eaton approached the three men right outside his apartment, drew his pistol and wordlessly opened fire from a few steps away, then vanished from the scene. He fired four shots in all, according to police.