Police, Wife: Muslim Killings Not Hate

Craig Stephen Hicks has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder after he allegedly killed three Muslim college students in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Tuesday night, the Charlotte Observer reported. Deah Barakat, 23; Barakat’s wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21; and Yusor’s sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19, were all shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene. A police spokesman said the shooting was over a long-running parking dispute between Hicks, who is an outspoken atheist, and the trio. The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina said the shootings were not "not part of a targeted campaign against Muslims in North Carolina." Although the father of the two slain girls, Mohammad Abu-Salha, said the killings were "a hate crime" and called the shootings "execution-style," Hicks' ex-wife said he cared about individual rights and that religion played no role in the incident.