#ChapelHillShooting Update: Suspect displayed “equal opportunity anger”
“He was definitely aggressive, and he spoke harshly when he was upset.”
Yesterday, thousands of people descended on Raleigh, North Carolina to pay homage to the three muslims killed in this week’s brutal shooting in Chapel Hill.
At one point, the memorial tilted political as the father of one of the victims begged for a federal investigation into the murders:
In an impassioned speech to the assembly, the father of the two slain women implored President Obama and law enforcement to investigate the killings as a hate crime. “Please involve the F.B.I. Please investigate. Please look carefully,” said Dr. Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, a psychiatrist in nearby Clayton. “I have talked to lawyers. I have talked to law professors. This has hate crime written all over it!”
“It is all about making this country that they loved, where they lived and died, peaceful for everybody else,” Dr. Abu-Salha said.
Without uttering his name, Dr. Abu-Salha referred in his eulogy to the Facebook page of Mr. Hicks, the neighbor charged with the murders, where he frequently made clear his disdain for all religions. Dr. Abu-Salha asked people to ignore what he saw as defamatory depictions of Islam in the news media, and specifically in the current movie “American Sniper.”
I’m not going to sit here and throw stones at speakers at a memorial where emotions are running high. His child was in the ground.
That being said, over the past few days we’re learned a little more about Hicks. Neighbors and friends of the victims are coming forward with troubling accounts of the dynamic between Mr. Hicks and his neighbors:
From the New York Times:
“I have seen and heard him be very unfriendly to a lot of people in this community,” said Samantha Maness, a resident of the complex. She said that Mr. Hicks had displayed “equal opportunity anger” and that “he kind of made everyone feel uncomfortable and unsafe.”
Ms. Maness said Mr. Hicks would often seek to have cars towed from the complex’s lot, either because they did not have stickers or because he did not recognize them. And she said he would complain about noise — he was upset when she and her friends were playing a card game and he thought they were too noisy, and he was again upset when she pulled into the lot with music playing loudly in her car.
“He was definitely aggressive, and he spoke harshly when he was upset,” she said.
Mr. Hicks’s Facebook page suggests that he has a strong interest in atheism and is contemptuous of religion; the page is filled with posts and cartoons mocking the intelligence of people who believe in the Bible. His anger appeared to be aimed primarily at Christians — in fact, in 2010 he decried as hypocritical opposition by Christians to a much-debated proposal for a mosque to be built near ground zero in Manhattan.
“Equal opportunity anger?” I’m proud of the Times for publishing that.
From what the fact finders can tell, then, people were uncomfortable with this guy. He acted in anger, and confronted his neighbors while armed. (We’ll save the open carry debate for another time.) He openly expressed hostility and hatred to people of all creeds and didn’t seem to be shy about it.
Chapel Hill police haven’t ruled out the idea that the shooting was hate-motivated; Hicks’ wife Karen has come forward claiming that her husband was not prejudiced, in an attempt to stave off the wave of accusations in a case that has gone international. The FBI has joined the investigation, but hasn’t released any new information.
Keep praying for these families; we’ll keep any and all updates coming.
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Comments
This guy is a hater. Of course this is a hate crime. Except “hate crime” is rather redundant. He hated all people of faith. Now if he had murdered Christians, or “white” people, I doubt it would a “hate crime.”
Thanks for letting me think this through: he is white, the victims are members of victim classes, muslim and non-white, so this is a hate crime. At this point, what difference does it make? Either give him life in prison with no parole or the needle. My preference is the first, as we need to respect all life, even scumbuckets. Perhaps in prison he will learn to accept the love of God.
It sounds like he could have just as easily murdered three white Christian neighbors. Would the Obama administration be looking into it as a “hate crime” then? Or do #MuslimLivesMatterMORE.
Dr. Abu-Salha asked people to ignore what he saw as defamatory depictions of Islam in the news media, and specifically in the current movie “American Sniper.”
I was genuinely sorry for Abu-Salha until I hit this line. He turned out to be one these Muslims who enjoy the auspices, rule of law and economic opportunities in the West but could care less about speaking out against the elements of his religion that are threatening western civil liberties. Except to say, don’t defame Islam.
Salha should be clear that it was a spawn of the Multicultural Left, the very people who invented the word ‘hate crime’, that murdered his children. Cruel irony.
Of COURSE it’s a Hate Crime! He’s white, the victims are muslim ergo Hate Crime. Now if he’d been muslim himself and he’d killed three non-muslims while screaming Allah Ackbar (muslim for I’m going to kill a bunch of kafirs) then it’d just be another crime in the US.
“His anger appeared to be aimed primarily at Christians…”
So, liberals are going to denounce their anti-Christian bigotry that contributed to this man’s hatred?
My heart was broken at the murder of these three young people but the very thought of the father exploiting these deaths cheapens their lives. That is on him.
Sounds like the shooter has a head full of bad wire.
I am so sorry these young people with bright futures were murdered, and I cannot imagine the pain their families right now are in.
However it seems extremely disingenuous of the media to be quoting the poor father’s agonized comments about his child’s death as factual ‘proof’ that these murders were indeed a hate crime. And President Obama, by jumping like a dog to the Turkish leader’s complaints that he hadn’t yet ‘spoken out’ about the crimes, once again showed his failure to understand that appeasing bullies only makes them want to hit you more.
I have a question that is generated from the comments in the Washington Post online:
Is it true that the unfortunate victims of this crime had quite a bit of hate speech on their personal Facebook pages? Hate speech against Israel and Jews?