Craig Stephen Hicks has been indicted on three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting of three young students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
According to WRAL, an N.C. Grand Jury also indicted Hicks, 46, on one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. The FBI and Chapel Hill Police are still trying to determine if Hicks' motive was simply a parking spot dispute or a hate crime toward three young Muslims.
Hicks turned himself in Tuesday night for the shooting and killing of Deah Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19. Barakat was a dentistry student at UNC - Chapel Hill, where his wife was going to join him in the fall. Razan attended N.C. State in Raleigh.
Hicks' wife Karen told CNN her husband is not guilty of a hate crime. Hicks has reportedly been known to frequently call towing companies to have cars that are parked in the wrong spot removed.
"This incident had nothing to do with religion or the victims' faith, but in fact was related to the longstanding parking disputes that my husband had with the neighbors," she said.
Karen Hicks is also in the process of divorcing her husband, but her attorney, Rob Maitland, told CNN this case "highlights the importance of access to mental health care services."
But Craig Hicks also identifies as a Second Amendment advocate and an atheist on his Facebook page. Yusor and Razan's father, Barakat's father-in-law, told CNN his younger daughter said Hicks was abrasive and argumentative and carried his gun on his hip often.
"My daughter, Yusor, honest to God, told us on more than two occasions that this man came knocking at the door and fighting about everything with a gun on his belt, more than twice," he said. "She told us, 'Daddy, I think he hates us for who we are and how we look.'"
