It is with extreme sadness that we mourn the loss of three members of our community due to a tragic shooting in Chapel Hill Tuesday evening, February 10, 2015. The victims include Deah Shaddy Barakat, a second-year student in the UNC School of Dentistry, and his wife, Yusor Mohammad, who had planned to begin her dental studies here in the fall, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, a student at N.C. State University. On behalf of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, we express our deepest condolences. Our thoughts are with their families, friends, professors, and peers.
February 11, 2015: The campus community is invited to a vigil this evening to honor the three young people who died yesterday evening. At 6:30 p.m. in the Pit, Triangle university and community leaders are coming together to remember the departed. Sadly, Deah Barakat, a student in the School of Dentistry, and his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, who had planned to begin her dental studies at Carolina next fall, were killed last night, along with Yusor’s sister, Razan Abu-Salha, an undergraduate at North Carolina State University.
The vigil is designed to celebrate and honor the lives of these three students and appeal to the communities for calm. Attendees will include Imam Abdullah Antepli, the Chief Representative of Muslim Affairs at Duke University, with Chancellor Carol L. Folt, N.C. State Chancellor Randy Woodson, N.C. Central Chancellor Debra Saunders-White, Duke University Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta, UNC President Tom Ross, School of Dentistry Dean Jane Weintraub and Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt.
As a show of unity, students from N.C. State, N.C. Central and Duke universities have been invited and are expected to attend, along with the UNC-Chapel Hill community.
Before the vigil, at 6 p.m., a prayer service will be held in the Great Hall of the Carolina Union. Both Muslim and non-Muslim members of the community are invited (the event will be closed to the news media).
A separate event previously announced to be held at the Peace and Justice Plaza downtown (the old Chapel Hill Post Office) has been incorporated into the Pit event.
For parking information, please click here.
Update: There are various vigils scheduled to take place in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Greensboro for Deah, Yusor, and Razan:
- Chapel Hill – Feb. 11
6:30pm – The Pit, UNC-CH (details above) - Greensboro – Feb. 11
5:30pm – EUC Lawn, UNC-Greensboro (details can be found here or you may contact Omar Ali at ohali@uncg.edu). - Raleigh – Feb. 12
6:00pm – Brickyard in front of D.H. Hill Library, NCSU. For more information, please contact Anna Bigelow at abbigelo@ncsu.edu.