Police probe motives behind murder of three Muslims in Chapel Hill

Police in North Carolina continue to look into motives behind the murder of three young Muslim-Americans who were killed in their home on Tuesday. Thousands are expected to attend their funeral on Thursday.North Carolina police were looking into a triple homicide on Thursday after three Muslim-Americans were gunned down in their home on Tuesday.

Newlyweds Shaddy Barakat and Yusor Mohammad, both in their early 20s - along with Mohammad's sister Razan, 19 - were shot multiple times in the university town of Chapel Hill by 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks, who called himself a "gun-toting atheist."

Local authorities initially said the murders were linked to disputes over parking and noise. Police asked the FBI for help in their probe, and Ripley Rand, the US attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, said his office was monitoring the investigation.

"We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case," Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue wrote in an email.

Rand, however, said it "appears at this point to have been an isolated incident."

Microblogging platform Twitter was abuzz with comments and condolences under the hashtags #MuslimLivesMatter, # ChapelHillShooting and #CallItTerrorism.