Thursday:
3 Muslim Students Murdered–Over Parking?
This nearby shocker pretty much took over my day Wednesday. It’s still unfolding.
And without drawing any final conclusions, here’s how it stands, as far as I can see now:
The victims were all students: Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha.
The accused shooter, Craig Hicks, is a very odd duck: reviewing his Facebook page shows him to be a dogged liberal Democrat, pro-gay rights, abortion and all the rest, who is also a militant atheist — fervently anti-religion but not apparently any more anti-Islam than anti-all the rest; there are more blasts against Christianity on his page than against Islam, if that means anything.
Yet at the same time, he’s a gun rights zealot (there’s a semi-erotic closeup photo of his snubnose .38 on the page, likely the murder weapon). He’s not a southern redneck tho. Plus he had a longstanding (with witnesses) angry obsession about — parking squabbles in his apartment/condo complex.
So go figure: a politically liberal, equal-opportunity anti-religious gun-toting atheist, for whom road rage turns to parking rage turns deadly. There was a whisper in his wife’s brief statement about mental health issues, but the lawyers instantly shut it down (probably because it will figure in his upcoming trial; an insanity defense may be his only hope).
I watched a video of a brief statement by Suzanne Barakat, the sister of one of the victims: a woman in hospital greens (she’s a doc) and the Muslim headscarf. Infinitely poised and calm, considering the circumstances; quite impressive. She asked that the killlings be investigated as a hate crime, but said no more. We’re advised that the Justice Department is “monitoring” the case.
And there it is, friends.
Ain’t that America.
You and me.
