A shooting at the Finley Forest Condominiums near the UNC-Chapel Hill campus resulted in the deaths of three people Tuesday night.
Chapel Hill police received a report of gunshots in the Summerwalk Circle area of Chapel Hill Tuesday at 5:11 p.m.
The officers found three subjects who were pronounced dead at the scene. The victims were Deah Shaddy Barakat, a UNC-CH graduate student in dentistry; his wife Yosur Mohammad, who planned to start in the same program in the fall and Yosur’s sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, a student at North Carolina State University.
Pictured: Deah Barakat and his wife Yosur Mohammad
The victims were shot and killed by Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, who was arrested by the Chapel Hill Police Department.
Hicks has been charged with three counts of first degree murder and is currently being held in the Durham County Jail without bond.
The preliminary investigation of the scene suggested that the crime was motivated by an ongoing dispute over parking between the neighbors, according to the Alert Carolina message sent to all UNC-CH students and faculty.
Investigators are continuing to look into the reasoning behind the shooting.
Chancellor Carol L. Folt of UNC-CH has reached out to the Carolina Community through Alert Carolina messages:
UNC-CH students are grieving over the loss of their peers.
"It's an absolute tragedy for this to happen to anyone, especially a member of the Tarheel Family and our neighbors at N.C. State," said Carolina Chao, first year student at UNC-CH.
"Shootings, regardless of the age of the victims or the their positions in life, would be tragic, but the fact that these victims were college students and our peers makes the reality of their deaths more personal," said UNC-CH sophomore Morgan Salmon.
Below is a fundraising video for Project: Refugee Smiles that Deah Barakat has helped organize:
He had planned to go to Turkey this summer with ten other dentists to provide dental care and work on prevention of dental issues, according to his video.
Updated: NC State University and NC Central University chancellors as well as UNC Dentistry school dean will attend #ChapelHillShooting memorial tonight. Memorial service tonight will include a prayer service closed to the media.
