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Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, of Chapel Hill, and his wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh, were shot to death at an apartment building in Chapel Hill, N.C.(Photo: Our Three Winners/Facebook)
An ongoing dispute over an apartment parking space may have led to the shooting deaths of three Muslim college students in North Carolina, but investigators are trying to determine if the killings could also have been hate-motivated, police said Wednesday.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, who turned himself in to the Chatham County Sheriff's Office, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the fatal shootings Tuesday afternoon at an apartment building in Chapel Hill.
Hicks, wearing a jail jumpsuit, made a brief appearance in Durham County District Court Wednesday morning where he asked for a public defender. He was denied bail and informed that the next hearing would be held March 4, newsobserver.com reports.
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Murders of Muslim students spark outrage
The victims, all shot in the head, were identified as Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, and his wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21, of Chapel Hill, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh, police said. The two female victims were sisters.
Friends posted a Facebook page in their honor on Wednesday.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, shown in a booking photo was arrested in connection with the shooting of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, N.C. , Feb.10. 2015.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Durham County Sheriff's office)
It was not immediately clear if the religion of the victims was a factor in the shootings.
Mohammad Abu-Salha, whose two daughters were among the victims, said Yusor and her husband had had disagreements before with Hicks and that he believes the alleged gunman's underlying animosity toward the couple was based on their religion and culture.
"This has all the signs. It was execution style, a bullet in every head," Abu-Salha tells newsobserver.com. "This was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime. 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. And they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far."
Abu-Salha, who has a psychiatry practice in Clayton, N.C., also said his daughter, in a reference to Hicks, told her family a week ago that she had "a hateful neighbor."
Police spokesman Lt. Joshua Mecimore said a preliminary investigation indicates the crime was "motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking" and that Hicks is cooperating with investigators, according to newsobserver.com.
Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue, in a statement, called the killings a "senseless and tragic act" and said police are still probing the likely cause of the shootings.
"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," Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with the families and friends of these young people who lost their lives so needlessly."
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council of American Islamic Relations, called on authorities Wednesday to determine as quickly as possible whether religion was a factor in the killings.
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"Based on the brutal nature of this crime, the past anti-religion statements of the alleged perpetrator, the religious attire of two of the victims, and the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society, we urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to quickly address speculation of a possible bias motive in this case," Awad said in a statement.
The killings triggered an outcry overnight on Twitter — under the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter — by those who feel the victims were marked by their religion.
The triple murder in this quiet college town shocked friends and neighbors.
"It's a very quiet community," resident Bethany Boring told WRAL-TV. "It's a lot of graduate and professional students. You know, professional families."
Barakat, a second-year dental student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Yusor Mohammad were married in late December. They traveled to Turkey last year to provide free dental care to students, according to their friends' Facebook page.
Contributing: Associated Press
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