The mother of one of the three Palestinian students shot in Vermont over the weekend says her son has a bullet lodged in his spine and doctors overseeing his recovery aren’t sure if he will be able to walk again, according to a report.
Elizabeth Price, whose 20-year-old son Hisham Awartani attends Brown University, told ABC News, "I'm shaking. I'm hollow inside. I'm aching to be with my son" following the incident that happened Saturday night in Burlington.
"He's lying immobilized in a bed, but he had very high spirits in the beginning. And I think now it's beginning to sink into him the extent of -- the enormity of -- the challenge that faces him," Price reportedly said. "He may have to be in a wheelchair. … I believe that he'll be able to walk, but his life has been taken away from him as it is, and he's gonna have to recreate this new life."
"Justice to me means making sure that the man who shot my son is behind bars," Price also told ABC News. "Justice to me is making sure that crimes like this don't happen again. Justice to me is also about my son finding a way to rebuild his life."
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday morning said that federal authorities are probing whether the shooting was a hate crime.
Suspect Jason Eaton, 48, appeared virtually in Chittenden County Superior Court on the same day and entered a not guilty plea to all three counts of attempted second-degree murder.
Eaton is currently being held without bail ahead of a bond hearing, which a judge said will be scheduled in the coming days.
The three college students – Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid of Haverford College and Tahseen Ahmed of Trinity College – were shot and injured at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday while out for a Thanksgiving holiday gathering in Burlington.
ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND PROBING POSSIBLE HATE CRIME AFTER SHOOTING OF 3 PALESTINIAN MEN IN VERMONT
The students were visiting the home of one of the victim's relatives and were walking to dinner when they were confronted by a White man with a handgun, according to police, who said the gunman opened fire on the victims "without speaking."
The shooting happened in front of Eaton's apartment building, police said. Eaton was detained Sunday afternoon near the scene of the shooting.
Two of the victims are U.S. citizens, while the third is a legal U.S. resident.
Two of the victims also were wearing keffiyehs, traditional scarves worn by some in the Middle East. The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee said they were speaking Arabic when the shooting occurred.
Tamara Tamimi, the mother of Abdalhamid, told ABC News that her son is expected to be released from hospital care soon.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
