THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015
PAGE 7A
3 slain for their religion or their parking space?
JONATHAN DREW Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. Police are trying to determine whether hate played any role in the killing of three Muslims, a crime they said was sparked by a neighbor's long-simmering anger over parking and noise inside their condominium complex.
AL DRAGO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nida Allam, a North Carolina State University student, rests her head on Asheen Allam, during a vigil for three people who were killed near UNC-Chapel Hill on Wednesday.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, describes himself as a "guntoting" atheist. Neighbors say he always seemed angry and confrontational.
His wife, Karen Hicks, said he "champions the rights of others" and said the killings "had nothing do with religion or the victims' faith." Later Wednesday, she issued another statement, saying she's divorcing him.
Hicks appeared in court Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder in the deaths Tuesday of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19. He pleaded indigence and was appointed a public defender.
Officers were summoned by a neighbor who called 911 reporting five to 10 shots and the sound of people screaming.
The women's father, Mohammad Abu-Salha, said police told him each was shot in the head inside the couple's apartment, and that he, for one, is convinced it was a hate crime.
"The media here bombards the American citizen with Islamic, Islamic, Islamic terrorism and makes people here scared of us and hate us and want us out. So if somebody has any conflict with you, and they already hate you, you get a bullet in
the head," said Abu-Salha, who is a psychiatrist.
The killings are fueling outrage among people who blame anti-Muslim rhetoric for hate crimes. A Muslim advocacy organization pressed authorities to investigate possible religious bias. Many posted social media updates with the hashtags #MuslimLivesMatter.
"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," Chapel Hill police Chief Chris Blue said in an email.
Chapel Hill Police asked the FBI for help in their probe, and Ripley Rand, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, said his office was monitoring the investigation. But Rand said the crime "appears at this point to have been an isolated incident."
About 2,000 people attended a candlelight vigil for the victims in the heart of UNC's campus Wednesday evening. Several people who knew them spoke about their selflessness as friends and recounted kindnesses that they had extended to others through the years.
Barakat and Mohammad were newlyweds who helped the homeless and raised funds to help Syrian refugees in Turkey this summer. They met while running the Muslim Student Association at N.C.State before he began pursuing an advanced degree in dentistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mohammad planned to join her husband in dentistry school in the fall.
Abu-Salha was visiting them Tuesday from Raleigh, N.C., where she was majoring in design at N.C. State.
"This was like the power couple of our community," said Ali Saijad, 21, the association's current president.
Many of the condominiums in the complex are rented or owned by students and recent graduates at UNC, whose campus is about three miles away.
Hicks had less success. Unemployed and driving a 15-year-old car, his wife said he's been studying to become a paralegal.
Both Hicks and his neighbors complained to the property managers, who apparently didn't intervene. "They told us to call the police if the guy came and harassed us again," Ahmad said.
Hicks, a Second Amendment rights advocate with a concealed weapons permit, often complained about both Christians and Muslims on his Facebook page. "Some call me a gun toting Liberal, others call me an open-minded Conservative," Hicks wrote.
Imad Ahmad, who lived in the condo where his friends were killed until Barakat and Mohammed were married in December, said Hicks complained about once a month that the two men were parking in a visitor's space as well as their assigned spot.
"This man was frustrated day in and day out about not being able to park where he wanted to," said Karen Hicks' attorney, Robert Maitland.
"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,' said Ahmad, a graduate student in chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill. "He did it again after they got married."
The killings were "related to long-standing parking disputes my husband had with various neighbors regardless of their race, religion or creed." Karen Hicks said.
A woman who lives near
Police have not said how Hicks got inside the condominium, but on Wednesday afternoon there were no visible signs of damage to the door, which was affixed with orange stickers warning of biohazardous material inside. A wooden placard bearing Arabic script that translates to "Thanks to God" hung over their doorbell.
the scene described Hicks as short-tempered. "Any time that I saw him or saw interaction with him or friends or anyone in the parking lot or myself, he was angry," Samantha Maness said of Hicks. "He was very angry, anytime I saw him."
Hicks' ex-wife, Cynthia Hurley, said before they divorced about 17 years ago his favorite movie was "Falling Down" the 1993 Michael Douglas film about a divorced unemployed engineer who goes on a shooting rampage.
"That always freaked me out," Hurley said. "He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all," she said.
A probable cause hearing is scheduled for March 4. Police said Hicks was cooperating.
Mock trial team qualifies for national competition
With the fourth-place finish in regionals, the team will progress to the opening stages of the national tournament and have a chance at qualifying for the national championship tournament.
The University's mock trial team qualified for the opening stages of the American Mock Trial Association's national tournament, which will take place April 17-19 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The team finished with a 6-2 record at the Kansas City, Mo. regional tournament this past weekend. Out of 24 colleges competing, the University's "A' team, out of two University teams sent to the tournament, finished fourth.
SKYLAR ROLSTAD
@KansanNews
"I don't want to say it's an expectation (to qualify for nationals) because that makes it sound like we are entitled to [winning in regionals]," University team president Jordan Kane said. "But we had."
The regional tournament consisted of four trials for each team. For two trials, the team acted as plaintiff, and as defendant in the other two. Each trial was scored by two judges on two ballots. The University's team won six ballots and lost two throughout the four trials.
"We strive [to make nationals] every year," University team captain Will Admussen said. "This year, there was a lot of pressure because of the talent we knew was on the team."
Admussen said he was proud of his team's achievement, citing the Midwest's strong tradition of mock trial prowess. His team defeated reputable opponents, such as the University of Illinois-Urbana and the University of Missouri, to succeed in regionals. The University
"Weekends are pretty much out of the question for [our team]." Admussen said. "We take a lot of time out of our school, work and personal schedules to prepare for this."
The team missed qualification from regionals last year, but advanced through regionals in each of the two previous years.
strong desire and determination to get to opening round championships."
Kane, who was tied for first in the Most Outstanding Attorney category during regionals, looked forward to taking the team further in the competition.
"With all of the talent on our team and our ability to place that talent strategically, I think it was more of an expectation to (qualify past regionals) this year," Kane said. "Each year, our goal is to get to the opening round of championships
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and from there, to quality for nationals, which we haven't done in a few years."
Before regionals, the team prepared by participating in five invitational tournaments during the fall semester.
team also recorded a landslide victory against Southern Missouri State University.
- Edited by Mitch Raznick
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The University's mock trial team qualified for the national tournament by placing fourth at the regional competition.
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