A grand jury in North Carolina has indicted Craig Hicks, 46, of Chapel Hill, a self-described “gun-toting” atheist on three counts of murder in the shootings of three young Muslims and one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling.
The primary motive was an ongoing dispute over a parking space, as per the local police.
The killings were branded as “execution-style murder” and a “hate crime,” by the families of the victims but the authorities have not said whether the suspected triple homicide was a hate crime.
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were shot in the head in their Chapel Hill condominium.
Hicks will remain in jail without bail and is scheduled to be in court on the murder charges on March 4.
The US FBI has also launched a preliminary inquiry into the murders.