The University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University have been bitter rivals for most of the last 120 years. This week, however, they are united in grief after three students were murdered in their condo in Chapel Hill on Tuesday night. Two of the victims had graduated from N. C. State and were enrolled in Carolina’s dental school, while a third was a student at N. C. State.
Just after 5 p. m. on Tuesday, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Yusor’s sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, were shot and killed in Deah and Yusor’s condo less than three miles from Carolina’s campus. Yusor had just graduated from N. C. State in December and was due to join her husband at Carolina’s dental school this fall. Razan was a sophomore at N. C. State. One of Deah and Yusor’s neighbors, Craig Hicks, was arrested later that night and charged with the murders; he’s being held without bond until a probable cause hearing on March 4.
While police believe that the shooting was the product of a long-running dispute over parking spaces at the condo, the victims’ relatives believe Hicks killed them out of hatred for their Muslim faith. Yusor and Razan’s father, Mohammad Abu-Salha, recalled that Yusor had told him that Hicks had picked on her and Deah on numerous occasions. According to Abu-Salha, a psychiatrist in nearby Clayton, Yusor said that Hicks “hates us for what we are and how we look.” Reportedly, Hicks even went as far as talking to them “with his gun in his belt.” His sentiments were echoed by the Barakat family at a press conference on Wednesday, who urged local and federal authorities to treat the murders as hate crimes.
There is growing sentiment that this was indeed a hate crime. The hashtag “#MuslimLivesMatter” has gone viral on Twitter, and has been picked up in several Middle Eastern countries as well as in the United States. However, Hicks’ wife, Karen, maintains that this was simply one of several long-running parking disputes her husband had with neighbors “regardless of their race, religion or creed.” Ripley Rand, the U. S. Attorney for North Carolina’s Middle District, says that based on the early details of the case, there’s no evidence that this was part of a targeted campaign against Muslims. However, the FBI has come to Chapel Hill to help investigate the case. Additionally, Hicks has been transferred to Central Prison in Raleigh for his own safety.
It’s too early to pinpoint a motive for certain. What is beyond dispute at this point, though, is that this was an unbelievably senseless act of violence in an area that isn’t used to seeing such things. However, it’s not a good sign when the best-case scenario is that this was indeed a parking dispute gone horribly wrong. It’s also not a good sign that you even have to wonder if this was a hate crime.
Deah, Yusor, and Razan were laid to rest earlier today in an emotional ceremony in Raleigh. The funeral was originally slated for their mosque, but so many people came that it had to be moved to athletic fields on N. C. State’s campus. Carolina held a vigil for the victims last night; N. C. State is due to hold one tonight. The families have also set up a memorial page on Facebook, Our Three Winners. The Tar Heels and Wolfpack are due to renew their always-bitter basketball rivalry on February 24. Speaking as a proud Tar Heel (class of 2000), I have to hope that some sort of remembrance for Deah, Yusor and Razan is in the works. After all, they have ties to both schools, and this is one thing on which both can and should unite.
