Mothers of Palestinian shooting victims say they’re like brothers

Burlington, VT- Following a shooting that injured three Palestinian men in Burlington’s south end on Saturday night the victim’s mothers are planning to visit their sons, and praising the community’s response.

Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all 20, were out for a walk Saturday night when a man approached them and shot them without saying a word, according to investigators.

A suspect has been arrested, Jason Eaton, 48, and he has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder and was ordered held without bail.

Elizabeth Price and Tamara Tamimi both say they are hoping to be reunited with their children this week. Both are currently overseas, Price in Ramallah, and Tamimi in Jerusalem. They plan to travel here and hope to arrive by Wednesday.

Both mothers say they got word of the shootings in the middle of the night.

Hisham Awartani is the most seriously hurt with a gunshot wound to the chest and a spinal injury. He remains in intensive care, and while he has feeling in his legs, he can’t walk and could have trouble regaining full mobility.

Price isn’t sure what his life will be like once he recovers. Price said, “he has to live a different life, he has to learn a whole new way of living. He has to sit out months of his life he took courses this semester, he lives to learn, he lives to experiment intellectually, and he had plans he was gonna move off campus, he was gonna go on an archeological dig in Sardinia, he was gonna come home and I don’t want he’s gonna do.”

Tamara Tamimi says her son Kinnan Abdalhamid is a trained EMT studying pre-med at Haverford College. Tamimi says he was the least affected in terms of injuries, and was expected to be discharged from the hospital on Monday, but says the recovery will take a lot longer.

Tamimi said, “He ran away from the scene when the shooting started, hid, and called for help. He thought his friends had passed away. This was difficult for him and painful as a trained EMT who couldn’t help his friends.”

Tamimi said the three have known each other most of their lives, “They are not his friends, they’re his brothers in essence. They’ve grown up together so the experience isn’t just about Kinnan, the experience isn’t just about these three Palestinian boys, it’s also incredibly personal for him and incredibly painful”

Price praised the UVM Medical Center for the care they’re providing the victims and the updates they’ve been giving their families. Price said, “The facility that the children are at is great and is fantastic and has protected the boys. There is a ward nurse who almost growls when anyone goes see them because she wants them kept quiet and sheltered they’re all put in one ICU room and that has been incredibly important to their mental health.”

Price says her family is getting around-the-clock updates from Burlington Police and credit them for being very proactive and engaged. Price said they appreciate the level of engagement that’s come with this case, both locally and on the federal level.

Price echoed what Tamimi said about the victims being brothers, saying, “They’ve been together, they are brothers, they are almost cut from same intellectual cloth. They support each other, they inspire each other, they challenge each other, they comfort each other.”