Brown University in Rhode Island has dropped charges against 20 students who were arrested earlier this month for trespassing following this weekend’s shooting incident in Burlington.University officials were expected to arraign those students on Tuesday after they were arrested for refusing to leave a campus building after hours during a protest on Nov. 8.However, those officials said the news of a Brown University student being severely injured in Saturday night’s shooting in Burlington made them reconsider the charges.Hisham Awartani, a 20-year-old junior at Brown, was spending his Thanksgiving break in Burlington and was out for a walk on Saturday when he and two other 20-year-olds, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, were confronted by 48-year-old Jason Eaton, who shot and injured them.Eaton pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder during his arraignment on Monday.Awartani’s family said he faces a long recovery due to a spinal injury.”He can feel everything on his legs, but he can’t move them. The doctors have told us that it is unlikely for him to regain functional mobility,” said Elizabeth Price, Awartani’s mother.School officials said they reached out to the city solicitor’s office on Monday and asked that the trespassing charges against those students be dismissed, with the city agreeing to do so.”The vicious attack against one of our students over the weekend in Vermont is reverberating across campus. It has shaken some of our community members deeply,” the statement read in part. “There is so much confusion, fear and anger being felt right now that we feel this is a time to bring our community together and try to set aside issues that are exacerbating tensions and division on our campus.”Brown University President Christina Paxson said she is in touch with Awartani’s family and has sent university personnel to Burlington.Paxson released a statement, saying, “I call on our community to come together to condemn anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination and acts of violence and hate, and express care and empathy.”Sister Station WCVB’s Emily Maher contributed to this report.
Brown University in Rhode Island has dropped charges against 20 students who were arrested earlier this month for trespassing following this weekend’s shooting incident in Burlington.
University officials were expected to arraign those students on Tuesday after they were arrested for refusing to leave a campus building after hours during a protest on Nov. 8.
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However, those officials said the news of a Brown University student being severely injured in Saturday night’s shooting in Burlington made them reconsider the charges.
Hisham Awartani, a 20-year-old junior at Brown, was spending his Thanksgiving break in Burlington and was out for a walk on Saturday when he and two other 20-year-olds, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, were confronted by 48-year-old Jason Eaton, who shot and injured them.
Eaton pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder during his arraignment on Monday.
Awartani’s family said he faces a long recovery due to a spinal injury.
“He can feel everything on his legs, but he can’t move them. The doctors have told us that it is unlikely for him to regain functional mobility,” said Elizabeth Price, Awartani’s mother.
School officials said they reached out to the city solicitor’s office on Monday and asked that the trespassing charges against those students be dismissed, with the city agreeing to do so.
“The vicious attack against one of our students over the weekend in Vermont is reverberating across campus. It has shaken some of our community members deeply,” the statement read in part. “There is so much confusion, fear and anger being felt right now that we feel this is a time to bring our community together and try to set aside issues that are exacerbating tensions and division on our campus.”
Brown University President Christina Paxson said she is in touch with Awartani’s family and has sent university personnel to Burlington.
Paxson released a statement, saying, “I call on our community to come together to condemn anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination and acts of violence and hate, and express care and empathy.”
Sister Station WCVB’s Emily Maher contributed to this report.
