US: One of three Palestinian students shot in Vermont may never walk again

Washington DC [US], November 28 (ANI): One of the three 20-year-old Palestinian college students who were shot in Vermont, may never be able to move his legs again after a bullet struck his spine, CNN has reported.

Hisham Awartani, a Brown University student, is starting to come to terms with the “very long road he has in front of him” after he and two longtime friends from the Israeli-occupied West Bank were shot while strolling through Burlington on Saturday, his mother, Elizabeth Price, said.

“He’s just a very resilient young man and he’s been trying to keep everyone’s spirits up by joking and just trying to be as calm as possible,” Price said. “We are determined to work with him, support him and get the best possible care.”

“I believe that Hisham has the determination… to regain his leg movement, but the doctors currently say that it is not possible,” she added.

Jason J Eaton, a 48-year-old suspect in the attack, was arrested Sunday and charged with three counts of attempted murder, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Authorities are investigating whether the incident was motivated by hate, yet they haven’t determined a motive, according to the CNN report.

The teenagers were confronted outside of Eaton’s apartment building as they walked, holding a conversation in Arabic and English, according to Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad.

The victims’ families and several civil rights groups have called for the case to be treated as a hate crime, but so far, police and prosecutors say there is insufficient evidence to establish Eaton’s motive.

“This absolutely was a hateful act,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad told CNN Monday. “But whether or not we can cross the legal threshold in order to determine that it is a hate crime is a different matter.”

The two other victims have been identified by family representatives as Kinnan Abdalhamid, a student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, a student at Trinity College in Connecticut.

Abdalhamid and Ahmad were also shot in the upper torso and lower extremities and hospitalised in the ICU. One of the victims was released from the hospital Monday, CNN reported.

In a statement by the victims’ families, they stated their relief that a victim had been arrested; however, they reiterated their confidence that the attack was motivated by hate.

“We believe a full investigation is likely to show our sons were targeted and violently attacked simply for being Palestinian,” the families’ statement said. “Full justice and accountability is important and needed to ensure that this type of brutal and violent attack does not happen again.”

All three of the students were visiting Burlington during the Thanksgiving holiday, staying with Awartani’s uncle, Rich Price. The trio had attended a birthday party for the uncle’s 8-year-old twin sons just hours before they were attacked, CNN reported, citing Rich Price.

“We had just come back from the birthday party and they decided to take a stroll around the block to get some fresh air,” Rich Price said. “They were just walking, talking amongst themselves. They were wearing their keffiyehs, which are traditional Palestinian scarves, and this gentleman stepped out of the dark, pulled out a handgun and fired four times.”

Rich Price noted the students upbringing in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“They grew up under military occupation and who would imagine that they would come to a place like this to celebrate Thanksgiving, and this is when their lives would be at risk.”

Elizabeth Price has said that Awartani’s “spirits are high,” despite his life-altering injuries. She will be travelling from the West Bank to the US to see her son, who is expected to stay in the hospital for another month, she said.

“I want to take care of him as a mother,” she said. “I just want to be there to reassure him and just give him the comfort he needs as he goes through this difficult transition in his life,” reported CNN.