Chapel Hill Shooting - While thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral of three Muslim students killed in the Chapel Hill shooting in North Carolina, their father told the crowd they were shot because of a hate crime.
According to people familiar with Craig Stephen Hicks, the man who was responsible for the Chapel Hill shooting, he hated religion. They also say that he becomes riled at the sight of his Muslim neighbours, two of which were the young women who wore hijabs and who were victims of the Chapel Hill shooting.
The names of the women who died in the Chapel Hill shooting were Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; Yusor Mohammad, 21; and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. They had been shot in the head by Hicks. Later after the Chapel Hill shooting, Hicks gave himself up to police and he has already been charged with killing the three, according to the BBC.
However, Chapel Hill, North Carolina police said Tuesday evening that the incident had not been a hate crime but simply appeared to be due to a dispute over a parking space. Hicks' wife also confirmed that the Chapel Hill shooting had only been a dispute between neighbors.
Meanwhile, according to a U.S. law enforcement official Wednesday, the FBI has opened a preliminary inquiry into the Chapel Hill shooting in order to look into whether the deaths have violated federal hate crime laws or other federal laws. However, the same official said that investigators have so far not found any indications of a hate crime. Evidence reportedly also suggest that the Chapel Hill shooting was due to the confrontation over a parking dispute.
Others are also saying that there's a double standard at play in the investigation of the Chapel Hill shooting. According to them, if the situation had been reversed, media and law enforcement would be calling the incident a hate crime or a terrorist act.
Police in North Carolina are saying that the 'hate crime' label isn't applied in the Chapel Hill shooting because there isn't concrete evidence of bias. Police are currently still searching Hicks' computer and they have yet to come up with anything pointing in the direction of a hate crime, a law enforcement official told CNN.
Hicks' wife said religion had nothing to do with the Chapel Hill shooting. Her divorce lawyer, Rob Maitland, also said that the killing "highlights the importance of access to mental health care services."
Though Maitland didn't provide any details about the Hicks' mental health history, he said that "obviously it's not within the range of normal behavior for someone to shoot three people over parking issues."
People are calling the Chapel Hill shooting a 'hate crime' because on his Facebook page, Hicks has been reportedly quite vocal about his atheism. People saying that the incident had been a hate crime are saying Hicks has posted this Facebook status:
"When it comes to insults, your religion started this, not me. If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I."
Meanwhile, CNN has not confirmed if the post is authentic.
A new report into the Chapel Hill shooting is saying that Hicks has already had run-ins with neighbours in the past, sometimes even while wearing a handgun on his hip, according to the Associated Press.
The 46-year-old has described himself as a "gun-toting" atheist. He had been charged with three counts of first-degree murder because of the Chapel Hill shooting. According to neighbors Wednesday, he also seemed angry and confrontational. His ex-wife also said he is obsessed with the shooting-rampage movie "Falling Down."
Meanwhile, Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of the two victims of the Chapel Hill shooting said he is sure that the women's hijabs had something to do with the slayings. He said that when his son-in-law lived alone in the condominium complex, they never had any problems, but when his daughter moved in wearing a head scarf identifying her as a Muslim, the trouble began.
Two days has passed since the Chapel Hill shooting, and the investigation is still far from completion, reported CNN. There are reportedly still many questions left unanswered. FBI is now assisting police, while Chapel Hill authorities aren't ruling out any options. A probable cause hearing into the Chapel Hill shooting has been scheduled for March 4, and Hicks was cooperating, said police.
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