(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A gunman who had posted anti-religious messages on Facebook and quarrelled with neighbours was charged with killing three young Muslims in what police said yesterday was a dispute over parking and possibly a hate crime.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, of Chapel Hill, was charged with first-degree murder in Tuesday's shootings around 2200 GMT near the University of North Carolina campus. His Facebook page said he was studying to be a paralegal.
The victims were newlyweds Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina dental student, and his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and Yusor's sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. All were involved in humanitarian aid programmes.
The suspect, in handcuffs, appeared briefly before a Durham County judge who ordered him held without bail pending a March 4 probable cause hearing. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the motive to be a parking dispute. They said Hicks turned himself in and was cooperating with police.
The shooting sparked the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter on social media, with many posters assailing what they called a lack of news coverage and world reaction. "I guess that Muslims are only newsworthy when behind the gun, not in front," tweeted a poster who goes by the handle @biebersrivals.
Groups including the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the local Raleigh-based Muslims for Social Justice called for a federal investigation into possible hate crimes.
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