U.S. gunman kills three young Muslims; parking spat cited

(Reuters) - A gunman who had posted anti-religious messages onFacebook was charged with killing three young Muslims in what police said on Wednesday was a dispute over parking and possibly a hate crime.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, of Chapel Hill, was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shootings around 5 p.m. on Tuesday near the University of North Carolina campus.

The victims are newlyweds Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina dental student, and his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and Yusor's sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.All were involved in humanitarian aid programs.

The suspect, in handcuffs and orange jail garb, appeared briefly early on Wednesday before Durham County Chief District Court Judge Marcia Morey who ordered him held without bond pending a probable cause hearing set for March 4.

Muslim activists demanded that authorities investigate a possible motive of religious hatred for the killings.

The father of the two women, Mohammad Abu-Salha, a psychiatrist in Clayton, told the News & Observer that his daughters wore Muslim headscarves and that the killings bore signs of a hate crime based on religion and culture.

"It was execution style, a bullet in every head," Abu-Salha told the Raleigh, North Carolina-based newspaper.

"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."   Read More at U.S. gunman kills three young Muslims

Chapel Hill Shooting Leaves 3 Muslim Students Dead; Neighbor Is Charged - nytimes