Who was Kareem Badawi? College of Alabama pupil killed in New Orleans terror assault
The demise of Kareem Badawi, an 18-year-old freshman on the College of Alabama, has left the Episcopal Faculty group in Baton Rouge grieving the lack of an distinctive younger man.
He was killed in a terrorist assault in New Orleans on New 12 months’s Eve. One other former classmate, Parker Vidrine, was additionally injured within the assault and stays within the ICU.
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Who was Kareem Badawi?
Kareem graduated from Episcopal Excessive Faculty in Baton Rouge, the place he was a beloved member of the soccer crew. He fashioned a detailed bond along with his greatest good friend and teammate, Ethan Ott. The 2 carried their friendship to varsity, changing into roommates and pledging Sigma Chi collectively. Each college students excelled academically, incomes 4.0 GPAs of their first semester.
Kareem’s former soccer coach, Travis Bourgeois, fondly remembered him: “Why harmless folks need to undergo, particularly a man like Kareem, was nicely favored, not a hurtful bone in his physique. He is a really sort, light man, nicely favored you understand, folks went to Kareem as a result of he is a optimistic man.”
On New 12 months’s Eve, Kareem joined a number of 2024 Episcopal graduates in New Orleans to reunite and share tales of their first semester in school. Sooner or later in the course of the evening, the group turned separated. Round 3:16 a.m., Ethan knowledgeable Kareem he was heading to Bourbon Road. Shortly after, Kareem’s life was tragically reduce quick.
“He thought it’s a giant metropolis and New Orleans would have events … He thought it will be a good suggestion, and there can be a much bigger social gathering than Baton Rouge,” Kareem’s father, Belal Badawi, instructed the New York Publish.
“The subsequent day was the Sugar Bowl and he loves sports activities so he thought New Orleans was the place to be for New 12 months’s Eve. The New 12 months’s Eve isn’t what he anticipated or deliberate for and sadly he received killed.”
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Ethan and different mates honoured Kareem by getting tattoos that learn “KB 1-1-2025.” Ethan defined, “Now I’ve received Kareem with me ceaselessly.”
The Episcopal Faculty group held a closed memorial for Kareem, with the chapel overflowing to twice its capability.
