Chapel Hill Killings (Photo : Reuters)
Three Muslim university students were shot to death near a university at Chapel Hill in North Carolina. A possible hate crime angle is believed to have happened on Feb. 10, Tuesday night.
The suspect Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, shot all three victims, Deah Barakat, 23, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and Razan Abu-Salha, 19, execution style with one bullet each on the head, CNN reported
At a news conference, Karen Hicks, the suspect's wife, was shocked to learn what her husband did and offered her condolences to the family. She also believed that this is not a hate crime but a longstanding parking dispute that her husband had with the neighbors.
"This incident had nothing to do with religion or the victims' faith, but in fact was related to the longstanding parking disputes that my husband had with the neighbors," Karen Hicks said.
Hicks has been posting anti-religious statement on social media, he posted a comment on Facebook with relevance to the victims religious beliefs.
Chief Chris Blue of the Chapel Hill Police Department stated that their detectives are investigating all probable motives that could have driven Mr. Hicks to do such crime. The hate crime angle is also being considered and that the authorities will also look into that possibility, according to Voice of America.
National Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, asked the law enforcement to look into the probability that this has to do with the victims' religious faith.
The hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter is now trending on Twitter nationwide, in the middle east and the UK early Wednesday morning.
