Two of the Palestinian college students who were shot while walking in Vermont in late November say the suspect waited for and targeted them because of a “larger systemic issue” of hate.
Kinnan Abdalhamid, 20, described how the suspect, Jason Eaton, appeared to be waiting for him and his two friends before he allegedly opened fire on them on the evening of Nov. 25.
“I don’t know why he’d have a loaded pistol and stand on the porch,” Kinnan Abdalhamid told NBC News in a sit-down interview that will air Wendesday.
Abdalhamid – who is a student at Haverford College, outside of Philadelphia – was on a walk in Burlington with his lifelong friends Tahseen Ali Ahmad and Hisham Awartani, both also 20, when the shots rang out, he recalled.
All three young men, who grew up together in the West Bank, were speaking mixed Arabic and English and wearing Palestinian keffiyehs when they say Eaton deliberately singled them out, NBC said.
Hisham Awartani (right) and Kinnan Abdalhamid spoke to NBC about the Nov. 25 shooting. NBC/Today
“Tahseen was screaming. He was shot first. Hisham didn’t make a sound. As soon as Tahseen started screaming, I was running,” Abdalhamid added.
Abdalhamid was subsequently grazed by a bullet on the right buttock, his mother, Tamimi, told CBS News shortly after the attack.
“I didn’t quite process the fact until I, like, looked at my phone and I saw my phone had blood on it. I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve been shot,’” Awartani, who is a student at Brown University, told NBC.
The pair spoke to the outlet from the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown, Mass. – where Awartani is receiving treatment since the bullet Eaton supposedly fired into his spine left him paralyzed from the chest down.
The three students were shot while walking in Burlington over the Thanksgiving weekend. via REUTERS
Nearly two months after the shooting, it is still unclear if authorities will charge Eaton with a hate crime, the outlet noted.
The 48-year-old – who was fired from his job a few weeks before the shooting – has already pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder.
The victims and their families have insisted that the shooting was a hate-driven attack from the beginning.
“I don’t think too much about if there’s gonna be hate crime charges. I just care that, like, justice is served. And to me, that is a part of it. But I know that it is a hate crime,” Awartani explained.
Growing up in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the students said, they are well familiar with anti-Palestinian feeling and violence.
Suspect Jason Eaton has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges. via REUTERS
“It’s odd because [the shooting] happened in Burlington, Vermont. It’s not odd because it happened, full stop,” Awartani said.
“In the West Bank growing up, it’s just something that’s normal. Like, so many unarmed young men getting shot by the Israeli army, and they’re just left to bleed out,” he added.
“Therefore, when it happened to me, it was like, ‘Oh, this is where it happens. This is it,’” he reasoned.
At the time of the shooting, Awartani, Abdalhamid, and Ahmad were spending the Thanksgiving holiday at Awartani’s grandmother’s house – which was just a short distance from where they were gunned down.
Several weeks earlier, on Oct. 7, international tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian issue reached a crisis point when Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip infiltrated southern Israel and massacred 1,200 people.
Awartani’s injury left him paralyzed from the chest down. NBC/Today
Awartani and Abdalhamid spoke with NBC as the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 100 days – and amid what they said was growing hostility toward Palestinians.
“I think there’s been a lot of attempts for us to fully only demonize [the shooter], but we realize this is part of a larger systematic issue,” Abdalhamid said.
“But the truth is, he’s a symptom of a larger issue. And the root cause is, again, like I said, systematic dehumanization [of Palestinians],” he continued.
“It’s something that, you know, has always been the case, like, in, Western discourse through the media. Like, the Palestinian is assumed by default to be terrorist,” Awartani agreed.
“And when he saw us, it was like — he just connected the dots,” he said of Eaton.
The three young men grew up together in the West Bank. via REUTERS
Both Awartani and Abdalhamid said they do not think about the shooting because they are distracted by news of what is going on in the Gaza Strip.
As of mid-January, over 24,000 are believed to have been killed in the small region, according to the Hamas-linked Palestinian Health Ministry.
In context of the war on Gaza, Awartani said, the shooting is “one drop in the ocean of what’s going on in Palestine.”
Hisham Awartani pictured being transferred to rehab in Deceember. AP
Even as he adjusts to his life-altering injury, Awartani added, he takes “solace in the fact that I’m able to receive this care, and I’m able to receive this physical therapy, and I’m able to, you know, go to a good hospital.
“When, like, it makes me think of, like, other people in Gaza that are, like — who are in wheelchairs, and who, you know, have been disabled by bombings,” he pointed out.
As for his plans for the future, the Ivy Leaguer joked that he will have more than a few challenges ahead.
“Well, I haven’t been through TSA yet, but I think that’s gonna make it a lot harder,” he said, referring to the bullet lodged in his spine.
Source link: https://nypost.com/2024/01/17/news/palestinian-students-shot-in-vermont-say-suspect-waited-for-and-targeted-them/