Obama calls triple N.C. shooting "brutal and outrageous"
President Obama issued a statement calling the murders of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, N.C., "brutal and outrageous."
"No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship," read the statement.
Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, Deah Shaddy Barakat, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were shot to death in their apartment in Chapel Hill on Tuesday evening. Their neighbor, Craig Hicks, 46, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the case.
Police have said that the victims may have been targeted because Hicks was unhappy with them over how they used the apartment complex parking lot. Multiple neighbors have told reporters that Hicks routinely had people's cars towed and a local towing company told CBS affiliate WRAL that he called so often they banned trucks from towing people at Hicks' request.
"He was aggressive when it came to things like parking and noise," Samantha Maness told the Raleigh News and Observer. "There were a lot of instances of him getting people's cars towed, being very aggressive toward visitors and residents."
Maness said that the neighbors organized a meeting to talk about how Hicks was making "everyone feel uncomfortable and unsafe." She told WRAL that he was "very angry anytime I saw him."
Dr. Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, the father of the two female victims, says he believes his daughters and son-in-law were killed because of their religion and has asked that the case be investigated as a hate crime.
"Let's stand up and be honest and see what these three children were martyred about. It was not about a parking spot," Abu-Salah said during the memorial service at North Carolina State University, reports the Associated Press.
The FBI issued a statement Thursday saying that they are looking into the case and Obama echoed that, stating today that the FBI "is taking steps to determine whether federal laws were violated."
Obama closed his statement by quoting one of the victims:
"Growing up in America has been such a blessing," Yusor said recently. "It doesn't matter where you come from. There's so many different people from so many different places, of different backgrounds and religions - but here, we're all one."
