Families of Palestinian students shot in Vermont say attack was targeted: 'Unfathomable'

When Rich Price invited his nephew Hisham Awartani and two friends to his twins' birthday party on Saturday, the three 20-year-olds had every right to say no.

Awartani, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid already dedicated generous time over their Thanksgiving respite from rigorous college classes to the kids, playing board games, video games, and ping pong together. But the three young men happily obliged to join in the 8-year-old boys' festivities.

Hours later, on a walk around Price's Burlington, Vermont, neighborhood after the party, a white man silently approached and fired four shots at them, striking all three men and leaving Awartani with a bullet lodged in his spine that could stay there forever.

"An attack like this is unfathomable," Price told USA TODAY. "To have this happen in Burlington was a big shock."

Price said his nephew is currently in stable condition, but without mobility in his legs. He faces a long recovery and the possibility of not walking again, Price said.

"We don't know what the long term prognosis is, but we remain hopeful," he said.

Even though Awartani's injuries are the worst of the three, in bedside conversations with Price, his concern is the state of his friends.

Ahmad and Abdalhamid are in recovery, Price said.

"They're dealing with both physical pain of the injuries, but also, I think, the stress of the situation," he said.

"I'm blown away by their strength, by their resilience, by their fortitude," he added.

Burlington police arrested 48-year-old Jason Eaton in connection with the attack on Sunday. Eaton, who lives in an apartment nearby, pleaded not guilty to three charges of attempted second-degree murder the following day.

Authorities say they have not determined if the shooting was motivated by anti-Palestinian or anti-Arab hate. Burlington police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The family believes the three men, who were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian neck scarves, and speaking Arabic at the time of the attack, were targeted.

"We also understand that there's a legal threshold to meet the criteria of a hate crime," Price said. "But in our view, this is clearly motivated by hate. We believe they were targeted because of how they look, how they were dressed, and what language they were speaking."

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Childhood friends and dedicated students

Awartani grew up with one foot in Palestine and one foot in the U.S. He took annual visits to his grandmother's Burlington home on summer vacations from school.

The three boys shared their childhoods together at the Ramallah Friends School in the Palestinian West Bank. Once adults, they travelled to the U.S. to pursue their studies at different universities– Awartani at Rhode Island's Brown University, Abdalhamid at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Ahmad at Trinity College in Connecticut.

Awartani, the leader of his high school's Model U.N. and a polyglot who picked up French, German, Italian, Persian, and some Aramaic on top of English and Arabic, applied to the best colleges in the world, Price said. At Brown, he studies mathematics and archaeology.

Although Awartani said it wasn't necessary for his parents to leave their home in Ramallah in the West Bank to visit him, the pair are on the way to Vermont and expected to arrive on Wednesday. "We're really excited for Hisham to see them and for them to be able to be with Hisham," Price said.

"I think it's been incredibly difficult for any parents to have this happen to a child, but to have it happen while you're thousands of miles away – I think it's been really, really difficult," he said.

Travel out of the West Bank posed challenges before, but the situation on the ground brought on by the escalation of the Israel-Palestinian conflict on Oct. 7 only worsened the situation. Awartani's parents had to go through Israeli checkpoints before they could board a plane for the U.S., Price said.

In the midst of tragedy, the family was uplifted by a surge of support from both the Burlington and Ramallah communities. The King of Jordan even offered to pay Awartani's medical bills, Price said.

On Wednesday, students at the Ramallah Friends School wore keffiyehs to show their support. "I just got a message from a family member in the UK that at their university, people were wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with these three young men," Price said.

In Vermont, local businesses offered the family free meals and hotel rooms. "It is reassuring that this is, in fact, the Vermont that we love," Price said.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at cmayesosterman@usatoday.com. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.