Police investigating the murder of three Muslim students by a North Carolina man said they were studying whether the slayings were racially motivated, as thousands gathered to mourn the killings and denounce intolerance.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder after Tuesday’s shootings in the university town of Chapel Hill which sparked outrage amongst Muslims worldwide.
Police emphasized that initial investigations indicated a dispute between Hicks and his victims over parking spaces may have been the catalyst for a shooting spree which claimed the lives of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.
“Our preliminary investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbour dispute over parking,” Chapel Hill police said in a statement, adding that Hicks was cooperating with investigators.
“Our investigators are exploring what could have motivated Mr Hicks to commit such a senseless and tragic act.
“We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case,” Police Chief Chris Blue said.
Meanwhile, thousand gathered in Chapel Hill to mourn the killings, with Barakat’s brother urging calm in the shaken univeristy town.
“Do not fight fire with fire… it is quite possible that this was an act based off of evil and a scared ignorant man. Do not let ignorance propagate in your life, do not reply ignorance with ignorance,” Farris Barakat said at the candlelight vigil.
He remembered his brother’s passion for sports, community work and the odd Chris Rock joke and said all three had an impact.
“We lost three great citizens of this world and of this country. But I think they’ve inspired thousands.”
– ‘This was a hate crime’ –
The cautious wording of the police statement contrasted sharply with the anguished reaction amongst many Muslims, however, and the father of two of the students demanding investigators treat the killing as a “hate crime.”
“This was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime,” said Mohammad Abu-Salha, the psychiatrist father of the two women shot dead.
“This man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt.”
Abu-Salha told the local News & Observer newspaper his daughter had voiced fears about Hicks last week.
“Honest to God, she said, ‘He hates us for what we are and how we look,'” Abu-Salha was quoted as saying.
Muslims across the globe meanwhile were quick to latch onto a viral campaign which asserted that the tragic killings had been under-reported by the US mainstream media because of the ethnicity of the victims.
– Twitter storm –
The hashtags #ChapelHillShooting and #MuslimLivesMatter were both trending on Twitter, with many claiming the crimes would have garnered more attention had the gunman been a Muslim and the victims white.
“Muslims only newsworthy when behind a gun. Not in front (of) it,” read one post which reflected the sentiments of many writing on Twitter.
By early Wednesday, however, the story was among the top headlines on national news networks in the United States, with lengthy reports also featuring prominently on the websites of major newspapers including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
Investigators were piecing together a picture of the alleged gunman, who turned himself into police shortly after the shooting on Tuesday.
A Facebook page believed to belong to Hicks showed dozens of anti-religious posts, including one calling himself an “anti-theist,” saying he has a “conscientious objection to religion,” and other memes denouncing Christianity, Mormonism and Islam.
His page also showed a photo of a loaded revolver, alongside a video of a puppy and a promotional clip for Air New Zealand.
One post read: “I’m not an atheist because I’m ignorant of the reality of religious scripture. I’m an atheist because religious scripture is ignorant of reality.”
“Given the enormous harm that your religion has done in this world, I’d say that I have not only a right, but a duty, to insult it.”
Photos of the three victims circulated on social media, including recent wedding pictures of Barakat and his wife.
A Facebook community — Our Three Winners — has been set up for posts about the three students and tributes poured in.
Barakat’s brother Farris mourned the deaths, writing “it doesn’t make sense” on his own Facebook page.
“I haven’t even begun to fully comprehend what has happened. But I know for sure those three together have done so much we are all proud of,” Farris Barakat wrote.
A burial service was scheduled for midday Thursday at the Islamic Association in neighboring Raleigh.
Profiles of three victims:
Following is a glimpse at the lives of three victims. he suspected assailant, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was charged with first-degree murder and is in custody after a brief court appearance on Wednesday. He had posted anti-religion messages to his Facebook page and said he was studying to become a paralegal.
Information about the victims – Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19 – came from their personal social media pages and the pages of their families and friends: –
Deah Shaddy Barakat, who married Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha on Dec. 27, was a dental student at the University of North Carolina. He regularly volunteered to provide free healthcare to the poor in the United States and abroad. Last month, Barakat handed out free dental supplies and food to homeless people in downtown Durham, North Carolina, and had made similar efforts in nearby Raleigh. Over the summer, Barakat traveled to Turkey to help perform fillings, root canals and oral hygiene instruction to refugees. Photos of Barakat show him as being a playful young man who enjoyed basketball and going on adventure trips, including on a recent parasailing excursion in Mexico.
“A little adrenaline rush at the beginning and landing, but so peaceful once you’re up,” he wrote of the experience on Facebook last month. In one of his last text messages, he wrote to his mother: “I love you mama.”
– Yusor Abu-Salha joined her then-boyfriend, Barakat, on the humanitarian dental mission to Turkey. Abu-Salha, who studied Human Biology at North Carolina State University, was set to begin dental school the next school year. In her social media postings, Abu-Salha celebrated her marriage with photos depicting a joyous wedding ceremony. One image showed Abu-Salha dancing with her father in a flowing wedding dress, a circle of smiling faces surrounding them.
“She and Deah found in one another a kindred spirit,” sister-in-law Suzanne Barakat said. Other postings showed Abu-Salha as an active young woman who played on a squash sports team and belonged to numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Muslim American Society in her hometown of Raleigh. Abu-Salha was killed alongside her sister, Razan. Both women wore traditional Muslim head scarfs.
– Razan Abu-Salha, 19, began studying architecture and environmental design at North Carolina State University last year. In April, she attended a fundraiser for Islamic Relief USA, which provides emergency food, healthcare and other aid to Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Razan was involved with making multimedia art and helped develop a video that was intended to spread positive and hopeful messages about being Muslim-American. Her family described Razan as a highly creative and generous person, whose best friend was her sister, Yusor.