Religion

Perpetrator[edit]
Craig Stephen Hicks was studying to become a paralegal at Durham Technical Community College at the time of the shooting.[27][37][38] He had moved to Chapel Hill in 2005 from Bethalto, Illinois.[39] He has been divorced twice, with one marriage lasting only five months.[26][39]

Though he was described by the school as an "exemplary student",[40] Hicks was described by neighbors as threatening.[26] In 2013, he reported a dispute between a tow truck driver and a car's owner to police, and walked to the parking lot with a gun.[26][41] A friend of Yusor stated that Hicks was "holding a rifle" while complaining about extra cars in the neighborhood and noise from their game of Risk.[26] Another resident and a friend of Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha told the Associated Press that

Hicks complained about once a month that the two men were parking in a visitor's space as well as their assigned spot. 'He would come over to the door. Knock on the door and then have a gun on his hip saying 'you guys need to not park here.' ... Both Hicks and his neighbors complained to the property managers who warned them to call the police if they were harassed again.[42][43]
Hicks had a fixation on the 1993 movie Falling Down strong enough for his ex-wife to make specific mention of it after the shootings. The movie centered on a divorced and unemployed man who suffers a mental breakdown and goes on a violent rampage. She described Hicks as "watching it incessantly" and finding the movie "hilarious", showing "no compassion at all".[40][44]

Hicks posted on Facebook comments and images that were critical of all religions and religious violence, and his profile read "Atheists for Equality".[45] He was critical of Christian opponents of the Park51 project, stating: "Seems an overwhelming majority of Christians in this country feel that the Muslims are using the Ground Zero mosque plans to 'mark their conquest' ... bunch of hypocrites, everywhere I've been in this country there are churches marking the Christian conquest of this country from the Native Americans." He also posted, "I hate Islam just as much as Christianity, but they have the right to worship in this country just as much as any others do," and also opined on the same page that it would be OK if we had a Muslim president.[46][47][48] Hicks had set a banner image on his page to one stating: "I don't deny you your right to believe whatever you'd like; but I have the right to point out it's ignorant and dangerous for as long as your baseless superstitions keep killing people."[49] In another Facebook post, Hicks stated: "I give your religion as much respect as your religion gives me ... there's nothing complicated about it, and I have every right to insult a religion that goes out of its way to insult, to judge, and to condemn me as an inadequate human being—which your religion does with self-righteous gusto."[50] His wife described Hicks as a champion of individual's rights, and said "This incident had nothing to do with religion or the victims' faith but was related to a longstanding parking dispute that my husband had with the neighbors." Neighbors confirmed that Hicks had frequently complained about parking and noise issues for years, and would confront residents while armed.[45]

Hicks had thirteen firearms in his house.[46]