Under-Reported Killing of Three Members of Muslim Family near UNC-Chapel Hill campus sparks

 '#MuslimLivesMatter' hastag

Three young members of a Muslim family were killed by a gunman Tuesday afternoon in their home near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. 

A suspect, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, surrended to police and was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of husband and wife Deah Barakat, 23, and Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, as well as Yusor's sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19. All three were shot "execution style," The Independent reported.

 

Barakat, a Syrian-American, is a doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Dentistry, according to the News and Observer. His wife and her sister attend North Carolina State.

Police responded to a report of gunfire shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday and found the three dead inside their apartment, which is in a quiet and usually crime-free Chapel Hill neighborhood that borders the campus, the News and Observer reporter. Students at UNC-Chapel Hill received a crime alert about the shooting, though it did not occur on campus.

Police have not said what might have motivated the killings. The News and Observer reported that Hicks lived in the same neighborhood as the three victims.

Less than two weeks before his death, Barakat was involved in a Twitter debate about the conflict over the Gaza Strip. "It's so freaking sad to hear people saying we should 'kill Jews' or 'kill Palestinians.' As if that's going to solve anything SMH," he tweeted.

 

The tweet started going viral after reports of Barakat's killing, getting more than 300 retweets by early Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday morning, Twitter users started to employ the hashtag "#MuslimLivesMatter," to comment on how the mainstream media did not initially focus on the whodunit. News of the killing did not make national headlines Tuesday night.

Barakat and Yusor got married at the end of December, according to Yusor's Facebook page. Yusor's page says she is studying human biology at North Carolina State University and was going to graduate this year. 

Razan's Facebook page says she started studying architecture and environmental design at North Carolina State University last year.