Families of Burlington shooting victims arrive in Vermont

The parents of two of the victims of last weekend's shooting in Vermont have arrived in Burlington.

It was a 36 hour journey from their homes in the middle east to Vermont, but Elizabeth Price says she's just grateful to finally be with her son.

"I'm just so excited to see my son but also so very anxious to see him in his current condition." said Price, Hisham Awartani's mother.

The group arrived at Burlington Airport on Wednesday Afternoon, five days after they were woken up in the middle of the night by a call that their sons had been shot just down the street from Hisham's grandmother's home, where the young men were staying for Thanksgiving break.

"They as parents have to deal with the immediate shock and the immediate worry about the condition of their children, particularly those that were overseas, that were in Ramallah, that were in Palestine, and then trying to coordinate everything to come over here." said the families' attorney Abed Ayoub.

Now that they have made it, Ali Awartani says he is overwhelmed with emotion at the thought of reuniting with his son, who doctors say may never walk again.

"I hope I will not collapse when I see him and I have no words. I hope he will walk again." said Awartani, Hisham's father.

But Awartani says there is a bigger message to come from the trauma his son has experienced.

"I hope that one day the world will start seeing our kids in Palestine equivalent to others. Because the way we see it is a human soul is a human soul no matter of the color, or religion or race." Awartani said.

In their statement Tuesday, Kinnan Abdelhamid's family said they are extremely relieved that he's been released from the hospital but that he is still in pain and recovering.

“Kinnan told us that he was afraid to leave the hospital," the statement reads. “Our child may be physically well enough to be out of the hospital, but he is still shaken from this horrific attack. We know that this tragedy will shape the rest of our lives.”

The families' attorney says he and the families hope justice is brought to the individual who they believe shot their children because they're Palestinian.

The man accused of shooting the students, Jason J. Eaton, was accused several years ago of harassing an ex-girlfriend in New York state, but no charges were ever filed, according to a police report.

Eaton's ex called police in Dewitt, New York, a town near Syracuse, in 2019 saying she had received numerous text messages, emails and phone calls that were sexual in nature but not threatening from Eaton, and wanted him to stop contacting her, according to a police report obtained by NBC News.

Eaton, 48, is currently being held without bail after his arrest Sunday in the city of Burlington on three counts of attempted murder.

Eaton had moved to Vermont this summer from the Syracuse, New York, area, according to Burlington police. He pleaded not guilty on Monday. Eaton’s name appeared in 37 Syracuse police reports from 2007 until 2021, but never as a suspect, said police spokesperson Lt. Matthew Malinowski. The cases ranged from domestic violence to larceny, and Eaton was listed as either a victim or the person filing the complaint in 21 of the reports, Malinowski said.

Eaton had recently lost his job. He worked for less than a year for California-based CUSO Financial and his employment ended on Nov. 8, said company spokesperson Jeff Eller.

He legally purchased the gun used in the shooting, police said. On Sunday, Eaton came to the door of his apartment holding his hands up, and told the officers he’d been waiting for them. Federal agents found the gun in his apartment later that day.

The shooting victims had been friends since first grade at Ramallah Friends School, a private school in the West Bank. Rania Ma’ayeh, who leads the school, called them “remarkable, distinguished students.”

Awartani is studying mathematics and archaeology at Brown University; Abdalhamid is a pre-med student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania; and Ali Ahmad is studying mathematics and IT at Trinity College in Connecticut. Awartani and Abdalhamid are U.S. citizens while Ali Ahmad is studying on a student visa, Ma’ayeh said.