On February 10, 2015, Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were killed in their home in Finley Forest Condominiums on Summerwalk Circle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Barakat was a second-year student in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry, his wife Yusor was a North Carolina State University (NCSU) graduate planning to enter UNC Dentistry School in the fall, and her sister Razan was a student at NCSU majoring in architecture and environmental design.
Their neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, who killed the three people in a single attack, turned himself in to Chapel Hill police later that day and was arrested. On February 10, the Chapel Hill Police Department stated that their "preliminary investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking. Hicks is cooperating with investigators." Hicks was charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
On February 16, Hicks was indicted by a Durham County grand jury on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice also launched their own investigations into the shooting. There have been concerns of a hate crime motive as all of the student were Muslim. Federal authorities could not find sufficient evidence to charge Hicks with a hate crime. The trial was scheduled to take place in the summer of 2019. On June 12, 2019, Hicks pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment.
Shooting
On February 10, 2015, local police in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, responded to a report of gunshots heard at 5:15 p.m. Upon arriving at the Finley Forest Condominiums, located on Summerwalk Circle at Chapel Hill, a woman told them a friend was bleeding, and directed them to a condominium. There, they found Barakat lying dead in the front doorway bleeding from the head. One of the Abu-Salha sisters was found dead in the kitchen, with the other lying in the doorway of that room. All three victims had been killed with gunshot wounds to the head, and were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to prosecutors, the perpetrator shot Barakat multiple times at the doorway after the latter opened the door in response to his knocking. He then entered the living room and shot the Abu-Salha sisters in the head, then shot Barakat again before leaving. According to autopsies, the Abu-Salha sisters were shot execution-style.
In June 2019 it was reported that Deah Barakat had recorded the encounter with Hicks on his cellphone camera. The recording shows Hicks complaining that Barakat and the Abu-Salha sisters were taking more parking spaces than the condo rules allow, before Hicks opens fire with his gun.
A witness outside told police he had heard shots and saw a man leaving the condominium and driving off in a gold car. Police found eight shell casings in the living room and a bullet somewhere else inside in the home, according to a warrant. They seized three cellphones, a watch, two sets of keys, and Barakat's wallet and keychain.
The victims' neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, a 46-year-old former car parts salesman, turned himself in to sheriff's deputies in nearby Pittsboro on the night of the shooting. He was in possession of a .357-caliber handgun at the time. Investigators later positively matched the handgun's ballistics to the shell casings found in the apartment.
Victims
Three people (two of whom were students) were killed:
- Deah Shaddy Barakat, age 23, a Syrian American. A 2013 graduate of North Carolina State University who had majored in business administration, he was a second-year student in the UNC School of Dentistry. He and 10 other dental students were planning to travel to Turkey to treat Syrian refugees as part of a project organized by UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry and the Syrian-American Medical Society. He also worked to provide free dental supplies to the homeless in his spare time. An avid fan of basketball, he married Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha on December 27, 2014. The couple had been married just six weeks when they were killed. An autopsy clarified that Barakat was shot multiple times in the head, chest, and upper extremities.
- Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, age 21, a Jordanian American of Palestinian descent and the wife of Deah Shaddy Barakat. Born in Jordan, she emigrated to the United States at the age of six months. A 2014 graduate of North Carolina State University, she had graduated with a bachelor's degree in biological sciences, and was planning to enter UNC in the fall to study dentistry. Friends described her as "down to earth" and "understanding", a happy newlywed. According to an autopsy, she was shot in the head and hip.
- Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, age 19, a Jordanian American of Palestinian descent and a sister of Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha. Born in the United States, she was a sophomore in the North Carolina State University College of Design, majoring in architecture and environmental design. She was also dedicated to charity work, supporting charities like Global Deaf Muslim. An autopsy described her cause of death as a gunshot wound to the left side of the head.
Perpetrator
Craig Stephen Hicks was studying to become a paralegal at Durham Technical Community College at the time of the shooting. He had moved to Chapel Hill in 2005 from Bethalto, Illinois. He has been divorced twice, with one marriage lasting only five months.
Though he was described by the school as an "exemplary student", Hicks was described by neighbors as threatening. In 2013, he reported a dispute between a tow truck driver and a car's owner to police, and walked to the parking lot with a gun. A friend of Yusor stated that Hicks was "holding a rifle" while complaining about extra cars in the neighborhood and noise from their game of Risk. Another resident and a friend of Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha told the Associated Press that
Hicks complained about once a month that the two men were parking in a visitor's space as well as their assigned spot. 'He would come over to the door. Knock on the door and then have a gun on his hip saying 'you guys need to not park here.' ... Both Hicks and his neighbors complained to the property managers who warned them to call the police if they were harassed again.
Hicks had a fixation on the 1993 movie Falling Down strong enough for his ex-wife to make specific mention of it after the shootings. The movie centered on a divorced and unemployed man who has a mental breakdown and goes on a violent rampage. She described Hicks as "watching it incessantly" and finding the movie "hilarious", showing "no compassion at all".
Hicks posted on Facebook comments and images that were critical of all religions and religious violence, and his profile read "Atheists for Equality". He was critical of Christian opponents of the Park51 project, stating: "Seems an overwhelming majority of Christians in this country feel that the Muslims are using the Ground Zero mosque plans to 'mark their conquest' ... bunch of hypocrites, everywhere I've been in this country there are churches marking the Christian conquest of this country from the Native Americans." He also posted, "I hate Islam just as much as Christianity, but they have the right to worship in this country just as much as any others do," and also opined on the same page that it would be OK if the United States had a Muslim president. Hicks had set a banner image on his page to one stating: "I don't deny you your right to believe whatever you'd like; but I have the right to point out it's ignorant and dangerous for as long as your baseless superstitions keep killing people." In another Facebook post, Hicks stated: "I give your religion as much respect as your religion gives me ... there's nothing complicated about it, and I have every right to insult a religion that goes out of its way to insult, to judge, and to condemn me as an inadequate human being—which your religion does with self-righteous gusto." His wife described Hicks as a champion of individual's rights, and said "This incident had nothing to do with religion or the victims' faith but was related to a longstanding parking dispute that my husband had with the neighbors." Neighbors confirmed that Hicks had frequently complained about parking and noise issues for years, and would confront residents while armed.
Hicks had thirteen firearms in his house.
Aftermath
On February 11, a few thousand people attended a vigil in "The Pit" at the center of the UNC Chapel Hill campus. Deah's mother Layla Barakat told the students: "He died of hate crime and his legacy is never hate. You don't respond back by hating the other. You respond back by love. By peace, by mercy. That's Deah's way." Deah's brother, Farris added: "If, and it was quite possible, that this was an act based off of [sic] evil and a scared ignorant man, do not let ignorance propagate in your life ... do not reply to ignorance with ignorance. Become an amazing, bright intellectual leader that I know this university can create." Chancellors from UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and North Carolina Central University attended the vigil.
A public funeral was held on February 12 at North Carolina State University. It was hosted by the Islamic Association of Raleigh; an estimated 5,500 people attended. NCSU's Muslim Student Association also held a prayer service and candlelight vigil the same evening on the Brickyard, the central plaza on the main university campus. An estimated 3,000 students, faculty, staff and members of the local community attended the vigil despite the cold and strong winds which kept the candles from being lit; instead, cellphone lights were used. Governor McCrory and the chancellors of N.C. State and UNC Chapel Hill attended the vigil and delivered remarks. Speaking at the vigil, Farris Barakat, also an alumnus of N.C. State University, discussed his deep family ties to the university and his hopes that it "means something to each and every student at NC State. I hope that means we somehow touched your heart in a way that you can live in their legacy and you can take what they did that was good and you can live it in your life. It is the best thing you can do for my family now." His sister Suzanne Barakat, flashing the wolf-hand sign popular among N.C. State students and alumni, spoke of her younger brother's commitment to serving others, and his wife's and sister-in-law's volunteer and charitable contributions to the greater community. "The message that we want to share is spread love, spread awareness because these three people were nothing but love and kindness. I'm sure they would want you to continue that for them."
Investigations and prosecution
On February 10, the Chapel Hill Police Department said their investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking. After Hicks surrendered to police, investigators swabbed the driver's door handle and steering wheel of his Nissan for evidence, and seized his vehicle registration and insurance card. On February 11, Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt stated:
the Chapel Hill Police Department is using all available resources to determine whether hate was a motivating factor. All we know for certain at this time is that it was a senseless and tragic act surrounding a longstanding dispute ... We do not know whether anti-Muslim bias played a role in this crime, but I do recognize the fear that members of our community may feel. Chapel Hill is a place for everyone, a place where Muslim lives matter.
Investigators searched Hicks' home and seized two fully loaded handguns, a fully loaded AR-15 Bushmaster rifle, two shotguns, five other rifles, two other handguns and two pellet guns. They also seized numerous magazines with varying amounts of ammunition, boxes of ammunition, shotgun shells, BBs, gun scopes and other gun-related items, according to a warrant. Investigators also seized two desktop computers, three cellphones and a digital camera.
On February 12, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrived at the condominiums and the FBI announced it had launched "a parallel preliminary inquiry to determine whether or not any federal laws were violated related to the case".
On February 13, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that civil-rights lawyers in the U.S. Department of Justice have opened an investigation to determine if this was a hate crime. Holder stated that: "Like all Americans, I was shocked and saddened by this week's heinous murders of three young people in Chapel Hill, North Carolina ... I have made available the full resources of the Justice Department to help ensure that justice will be served in this case." By February 13, over a hundred Muslim advocacy groups had called for such a federal investigation, saying that the shootings "come in the wake of a disturbing rise in especially threatening and vitriolic anti-Muslim rhetoric and activities". Investigators initially had not ruled out any motives, including religious bias.