Authorities plan to investigate whether the man who allegedly shot three Muslim students to death near the University of North Carolina was motivated by religious hate, Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols said Wednesday.
Echols told the Los Angeles Times that officials will look into whether the victims’ faith played a role in the shooting and then decide whether to seek hate crimes charges.
Chapel Hill police on Tuesday arrested and charged Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, with three counts of first-degree murder. The victims were identified as Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, a doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Dentistry, and sisters Yusor Mohammad, 21, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, both students at North Carolina State University.
Police suggested that Hicks may have been motivated by a long-running parking dispute but did not speculate further as to why he allegedly shot the three students.
A Facebook page that appears to belong to Hicks showed that the suspected shooter had a strong bias against all religions as a self-professed “anti-theist,” as well as a love of guns.
