Two of the Palestinian college students who were shot while walking in Vermont in late November said the suspects waited 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 two friends before he allegedly opened fire on them on the evening of Nov 25.
“I don’t know why he has a loaded gun and is standing on the porch,” Kinnan Abdalhamid told NBC News in a sit-down interview to be broadcast Wednesday.
Abdalhamid – who is a student at Haverford College, outside Philadelphia – was walking in Burlington with his lifelong friends Tahseen Ali Ahmad and Hisham Awartani, both also 20, when the shots rang out, he recalled.
The three young men, who grew up together in the West Bank, spoke a mixture of Arabic and English and wore Palestinian keffiyehs when they said Eaton deliberately singled them out, NBC said.
Hisham Awartani (right) and Kinnan Abdalhamid speak to NBC about the November 25 shooting. NBC/Today
“Tahseen screamed. He was shot first. Hisham did not speak. As soon as Tahseen started screaming, I kept running,” added Abdalhamid.
Abdalhamid was then struck by a bullet in the right buttock, his mother, Tamimi, told CBS News shortly after the attack.
“I didn’t quite process that fact until I, like, looked at my phone and I saw that 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 couple spoke to hospital officials from Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown, Mass. – where Awartani is receiving treatment as the bullet that Eaton supposedly fired into his spine left him paralyzed from the chest down.
The three students were shot while walking in Burlington over Thanksgiving weekend. via REUTERS
Nearly two months after the shooting, it remains unclear whether authorities will charge Eaton with a hate crime, the outlet said.
The 48-year-old – who was fired from his job weeks before the shooting – has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder.
The victims and their families have insisted that the shooting was a hate-motivated attack from the start.
“I don’t think too much if there are allegations of hate crimes. I just care that, like, justice is served. And for me, that’s part of it. But I know that it is a hate crime,” explained Awartani.
Growing up in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the students said, they were familiar with anti-Palestinian sentiment and violence.
Suspect Jason Eaton has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. via REUTERS
“It is odd because [the shooting] takes place in Burlington, Vermont. It’s not odd because it happens, period,” said Awartani.
“Growing up in the West Bank, it was normal. Like, so many unarmed young men were shot by the Israeli army, and they were just left to bleed,” he added.
“So 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 not far from where they were shot dead.
A few weeks earlier, on October 7, international tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian issue reached a crisis point when Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip infiltrated southern Israel and killed 1,200 people.
Awartani’s injury left him paralyzed from the chest down. NBC/Today
Awartani and Abdalhamid spoke to NBC as the Israel-Hamas war passed 100 days — and amid what they say is growing hostility toward the Palestinians.
“I think there are a lot of attempts for us to completely collapse [the shooter]but we realize this is part of a larger systemic issue,” said Abdalhamid.
“But the truth is, he is a symptom of a bigger issue. And the cause is, again, as I said, systematic dehumanization [of Palestinians],” he continued.
“It’s something that, you know, always happens, like, in Western discourse through the media. Like, the Palestinians are assumed by default to be terrorists,” 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 did not think about the shooting because they were distracted by news of what was happening in the Gaza Strip.
As of mid-January, more than 24,000 are believed to have been killed in the small territory, according to the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In the context of the war on Gaza, Awartani said, the shooting was “a drop in the ocean of what is happening in Palestine.”
Hisham Awartani was pictured being transferred to rehab in December. AP
Even as she adjusts to her life-changing injury, Awartani added, she’s “relieved that I was able to receive this care, and I was able to receive this physical therapy, and I was able to, you know, go to a good hospital.
“When, like, it made me think of, like, other people in Gaza who, like – who are in wheelchairs, and who, you know, have been disabled by the bombing,” he said.
As for his plans for the future, the Ivy Leaguer joked that he will face more than a few challenges ahead.
“Well, I haven’t gone through TSA yet, but I think it’s going to make it more difficult,” he said, referring to the bullet lodged in his spine.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
