Muslims Gather Here To Remember Chapel Hill, N.C. Shooting Victims
(CBS) -- Activists, students and a relative gathered Friday in southwest suburban Willowbrook to remember three Muslim students shot to death in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Council of American-Islamic Relations called for a federal hate-crime investigation. Its Chicago area executive director, Ahmed Rehab, said that while suspect Craig Hicks was allegedly antagonistic to many, he only lined up three young Muslims to be killed execution-style.
"We have to be careful as a society never to get to a point where we assume that an execution is a natural extension of a bad attitude," Rehab said.
Victim Deah Shaddy Barakat was the son of Rula Dweydari's cousin. Dweydari said they visited each other frequently and said that for years, she admired Deah's desire to help others.
Muslim Shooting Victims Remembered
"He had so much dreams," Dweydari said. "I think what happened to them was a very big tragedy."
From speaking with those close to the investigation, Rehab said, it appeared that Hicks' hostility seemed to multiply when Barakat married fellow victim Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha. The third victim, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salah, was Yusor's younger sister.
Dweydari said the GoFundMe site that Deah had set up to help provide help medical care for Syrian refugees has grown from $15,000 at the time of the murders to more than $350,000. The Syrian-American Medical Society will use the money to set up clinics in the memory of the three for refugees from Syria's civil war who are now in Turkey.
