Police probe motive behind killing of 3 Muslims

Suspect’s wife says slayings were not hate crimes.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Police Wednesday were trying to determine whether hate played any role in the killing of three Muslims, a crime they said was sparked by a neighbor’s long-simmering anger over parking and noise at their condominium complex.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, describes himself on Facebook as a “gun toting” atheist. Neighbors said he always seemed angry and frequently confronted them.

His ex-wife, Cynthia Hurley, said he was obsessed with “Falling Down,” the 1993 Michael Douglas film about an unemployed engineer who goes on a shooting rampage.

“He thought it was hilarious,” she said. “He had no compassion at all.”

His current wife, Karen Hicks, said he “champi- ons the rights of others” and that the killings “had nothing do with religion or the victims’ faith.” Later Wednesday, she said she was divorcing him.

Hicks was arraigned on charges of first-degree murder in the deaths Tuesday of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19

Officers were summoned by a neighbor who called 911 reporting five to 10 shots and the sound of people screaming.

The women’s father, Mohammad Abu-Salha, said police told him each was shot in the head and that he is convinced it was a hate crime.

“The media here bombards the American citizen with Islamic, Islamic, Islamic terrorism and makes people here scared of us and hate us and want us out. So if somebody has any conflict with you, and they already hate you, you get a bullet in the head,” said Abu-Salha, a psychiatrist.

The killings are fueling outrage among people who blame anti-Muslim rhetoric for hate crimes. A Muslim advocacy organization pressed authorities to investigate possible religious bias and social media postings about the case appeared with the hashtags #MuslimLivesMatter and #CallItTerrorism.

“We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case,” Chapel Hill police Chief Chris Blue said.

Barakat and Moham- mad were newlyweds who helped the homeless and raised funds forSyrian refugees in Turkey. They met while running the Muslim Student Association at North Carolina State University before he began pursuing an advanced degree in dentistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mohammad planned to join her husband in dentistry school in the fall.

Abu-Salha was visiting them from Raleigh, where she was majoring in design at N.C. State.

“This was like the power couple of our community,” said Ali Sajjad, the association’s current president.

Craig Stephen Hicks was charged in the killings of three Muslims.