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 The president's statement came as the U.S. Justice Department said
it would join the FBI's preliminary inquiry to determine whether the
man accused in the Chapel Hill shooting on Tuesday broke any federal
laws, including hate crime laws.
"No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted
because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship,"
Obama said in a statement, offering his condolences to the victims'
families.
The families had called on Obama to insist that federal authorities
investigate whether the murder suspect, 46-year-old paralegal
student Craig Stephen Hicks, was motivated by hatred toward the
victims because they were Muslim.
Police seized more than a dozen firearms and a large amount of
ammunition from his home, according to search warrants filed on
Friday, WRAL-TV reported.
Newlywed Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, a University of North Carolina
dental student, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her
sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, a student at North Carolina
State University, were killed in a condominium about two miles
(three km) from the UNC campus.
According to the warrants, a friend of the victims' stopped police
and directed them to the condo, where authorities found Barakat dead
and bleeding from his head in the front doorway, the television
station reported.
One of the sisters was found in the kitchen and the other in its
doorway, according WRAL-TV.
TURKISH CRITICISM
On Thursday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan criticized Obama and
other U.S. leaders for their silence about the incident, which has
garnered international attention and left some U.S. Muslims feeling
concerned about their safety.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday praised the
three victims, who were all involved in humanitarian aid work, as
representing the best values of global citizenship and said he was
deeply moved by scenes of thousands of people mourning their deaths.
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A Justice Department spokeswoman said its Civil Rights Division and
the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina
would participate in the FBI inquiry announced in the case Thursday
evening.
Muslim advocates on Friday called the inquiries a key first step
towards the full federal investigation they are seeking.
In a separate investigation, local police have cited a parking
dispute as Hicks' motive but said they were also looking into
whether religious hatred played a role.
Neighbors said Hicks, who posted anti-religion messages and a photo
of a gun he said belonged to him on his Facebook page, was known in
the condo community as someone prone to grow angry over parking
troubles and noise.
Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of the two female victims, told CNN
that his daughter Yusor had said Hicks made her feel uncomfortable
after she moved into a neighboring condo where her new husband
lived.
"Daddy, I think he hates us for who we are," Abu-Salha said his
daughter told him, according to CNN.
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards in Washington, D.C., and
Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla.; Editing by Lisa Lambert and Eric
Beech)
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