Breaking their silence, a Palestinian student hurt in a hate crime shooting speaks out
One of the three Palestinian students shot in Burlington, Vermont, last weekend finally spoke out about the event, describing the instant he realized he was hurt.
Kinnan Abdalhamid stated in a Thursday interview with CBS News that he felt that his buddies might be dead immediately following the shooting and that’s when he felt “an extreme spike of pain.”
“I put my hand where the pain was, and then I looked at it and it was soaked in blood,” said Abdalhamid. “I was like, ‘holy s***, I was shot.'”
Haverford College student Abdalhamid was shot on Saturday night while he was walking along a street with his friends Hisham Awartani and Tahseen Ahmad.
Authorities said that while they were visiting a relative’s home in Burlington for Thanksgiving, an armed white male is said to have fired at least four shots silently.
Abdalhamid remarked, “We were speaking in an almost Arabic-like manner.” Hence, a blend of English and Arabic. Without pausing, the gunman simply descended the stairs, took out a revolver, and began to shoot.”
According to CBS News, two of the victims were donning keffiyehs, the black and white checkered scarf that has come to symbolize Palestinian identity and solidarity.
Abdalhamid claimed that when he heard the gunshots, he fled for his life.
“I think the first bullet went into Tahseen’s chest,” stated Abdalhamid. “And I heard him yelling and the crash on the floor. Hisham was hit by the second pistol fire, and I heard him thud to the ground while I was running.”
It took Abdalhamid a moment to realize he was also hurt.
“Honestly it was so surreal that I couldn’t really think, it was kind of like fight or flight,” said Abdalhamid. “I didn’t know I was shot until a minute later.”
After the 20-year-old succeeded in knocking on a neighbor’s door, the neighbor called the police. Then, depending on his experience as an EMT and the knowledge that he needed help fast, Abdalhamid pleaded with the authorities to take him to the hospital right away.
He asked how his two injured friends were doing when he got there. One of them had spinal injury as of Thursday, and the other was still recovering in the intensive care unit.
“I was like, ‘Are my friends alive…like, are they alive?'” Doctors, according to Abdalhamid, he inquired. “And then, they were able to ask, and they told me, and that’s when I was really a lot more relieved, and in a lot better mental state.”
After the shooting, Abdalhamid’s mother, Tamara Tamimi, hurried from Jerusalem to Vermont.
“Honestly, till now, I feel like there’s nowhere safe for Palestinians,” Tamimi stated. “Where on Earth are we expected to put him if we can’t keep him safe here? Where should we be, exactly? Like, how am I meant to keep him safe?”
Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested by the authorities on Sunday, and they are investigating the shooting as possible hate crime. Eaton pled not guilty to three counts of attempted murder, and was then taken into custody without posting bail
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