BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Brown University student of Palestinian descent who was shot in Burlington, Vermont, over Thanksgiving weekend in what is being investigated as a possible hate crime underwent surgery Wednesday and will be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital in Boston next week.
Twenty-year-old Hisham Awartani, one of the three young Palestinian men who were spending their Thanksgiving break in Burlington, was walking with the other men during a visit to the home of Awartani’s relatives when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun and shot, police said.
Elizabeth Price, Awartani’s mother, says doctors have told her to prepare for her son never being able to walk again due to a bullet that struck his spine.
“He’s understanding now the very long road that he has in front of him. He has another month in the hospital and several months of physical therapy, but currently, the doctors say he’s lost function in both of his legs,” Price said earlier this week. “The prognosis is bad. The prognosis is that he won’t regain it.”
Price said she and her husband, Ali Awartani, arrived in Vermont to visit with their son after a 36-hour trek from Palestine.
“I hope I will not collapse when I see him. I have no words,” Ali said. “I hope he will walk again.”
The other two men Hisham was with were last said to be in stable condition.
Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arraigned from jail on Monday on three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting.
Hundreds gathered at Brown University on Monday night to pray for the shooting victims.
An investigation remains ongoing.
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