police responded to reports of gunshots at about 5:15 p.m., tuesday, when they found the victims' bodies. the shooting happened in a neighborhood that is mostly rental apartments where students live, and crime there is low, according to the news and observer.









that night, frantic parents waited outside finley forest condominiums, where police were investigating the triple homicide, the daily tarheel reports. one mother broke down in tears after she inquired about her daughter and son-in-law, while a father screamed, "it's been hours! just tell me if he's alive!"









"why do i cry?" farris barakat, deah's brother, wrote on facebook. "so many times i've grabbed my phone to text my brother, yusor, and razan. except seconds later i realize that i've taken them for granted and imagine their phone laying by their bodies. that's not okay guys."









"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. our thoughts are with the families and friends of these young people who lost their lives so needlessly," chief chris blue of the chapel hill police department said at a press conference.









update 3:15 p.m.: in a press conference, hicks' wife of seven years, karen, said she "never would have expected this." she said that the shooting had nothing to do with race or religion, and everything to do with parking problems.









"this incident had nothing to do with religion or victims<u+2019> faith but instead had to do with the longstanding parking disputes that my husband had with the neighbors," she said, choking back tears. "he often champions on his facebook page for the rights of many individuals. same sex marriages, abortion, race, he just believes that everyone is equal. doesn<u+2019>t matter what you look like or who you are or what you believe."









she said she didn't know what drove hicks to allegedly shoot three people, but her lawyers said that the suspect didn't single out the victims and had problems with other neighbors in the past. hicks' ex-wife, kristen, told the huffington post that she hadn't "heard from or seen him in 10 years," and had no further comment.









"it was execution style, a bullet in every head," he told the news observer. "this was not a dispute over a parking space; this was a hate crime. this man had picked on my daughter and her husband a couple of times before, and he talked with them with his gun in his belt. and they were uncomfortable with him, but they did not know he would go this far."









"we<u+2019>re still in a state of shock and will never be able to make sense of this horrendous tragedy," she said. "we ask that the authorities investigate these senseless and heinous murders as a hate crime ... we ask that you celebrate the memories of our family members."









the gruesome scene has sparked an outcry on facebook and twitter, as word circulated that hicks described himself as an "anti-theist" and criticized religions online, according to the independent. that revelation, as well as a lack of media attention to the shooting tuesday night, reportedly led to a "#muslimlivesmatter" hashtag.









less than two weeks before he was killed, barakat -- a dental student at unc -- was involved in a debate over the gaza strip on twitter, the new york daily news reports. one of his tweets went viral when news of his death spread. it reads: "it's so freaking sad to hear people saying we should "kill jews" or "kill palestinians". as if that's going to solve anything smh."









each of the young family members was a student. yusor -- who married barakat in december, according to their facebook profiles -- recently graduated with a degree in human biology at north carolina state university. razan was studying architecture and environmental design at north carolina state university last year, according to her facebook page.









barakat was a regular volunteer and helped organize an effort to raise money to provide free dental care to students of the salaam school in turkey, according to wral. his final facebook post features a photo of efforts to hand out dental supplies to the homeless in north carolina. he also started a fundraising page for a trip this summer to turkey, where he planned to provide dental care to syrian refugees. supporters sent in thousands of dollars after the shooting, and the fundraising goal was exceeded by more than $10,000 wednesday morning.
3 members of muslim family shot dead in chapel hill
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