Police say that Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, murdered three Muslim-American students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Tuesday, and their "preliminary investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking." Hicks' wife, Karen, was more direct: "I can say with absolute belief that this incident had nothing to do with religion or the victims' faith, but it was related to a longstanding parking dispute that my husband had with the neighbors."
But the family of the three young victims — newlyweds Deah Shaddy Barakat and Yusor Mohammad, and Mohammad's sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha — call parking an unlikely motive. They aren't alone. News of the murders has spread across the world, and spread fear through North Carolina's Muslim community, already on edge after the Charlie Hebdo murders in France, The New York Times reports. "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," said Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue in a statement.
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