WASHINGTON: Police have arrested a gunman in the killing of three Muslim students including a husband and wife in the university town of Chapel Hill in North Carolina, US news reports said Wednesday.
The shooter, identified as Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was being held in Durham County Jail on three counts of first-degree murder, the Chapel Hill News and Observer newspaper and other news outlets said.
The victims were identified as Chapel Hill residents Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Abu Salha, 19, of Raleigh.
Hicks turned himself in after the shooting Tuesday in Chapel Hill, just outside the campus of the University of North Carolina.
Reports said Barakat was a second-year student in dentistry there while his wife was planning to begin her dental studies in the fall.
Razan Abu Salha was a student at North Carolina State University, according to the UNC university newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel.
A Facebook community Our Three Winners has been set up for posts about the three students.
Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu Salha and Razan Abu Salha have returned to their Lord, the communitys creators state. They have set an example in life and in death.
The site features a photo of the three smiling at what appears to be graduation ceremony. The women wear Muslim headscarfs, one of them also in a blue graduation cap.
The Chapel Hill Police Department, meanwhile, released a statement saying they are questioning a person of interest in the crime; however, they are yet to reveal the suspects identity.
Mainstream media outlets, such as CNN, on the other hand, have not reported the shooting incident yet. However, social media was inundated with updates and condolences over the deaths of the three Arab students.
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