Vigil led by Muslim Student Association mourns Chapel Hill shootings
Mount Pleasant resident Tracy Nakajima lights candles in remembrance for the three muslim lives that were lost in North Carolina on Feb. 24 at the Botanical Gardens.
Central Michigan University students, faculty and members of the local community endured chilling temperatures Tuesday as they gathered at the Fabiano Botanical Garden gazebo for a seven-hour vigil.
The vigil was dedicated to three University of North Carolina students who were shot and killed two weeks ago.
Cardboard cutouts with names and pictures of the victims, Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha lined the inside of the gazebo. White silk roses were distributed to visitors with the phrase #HumanLivesMatter taped to the stems.
Muslim Student Association volunteers, including Mount Pleasant senior Duha Hamed, managed the crowd and shared anecdotes of the student's lives and their involvement in the community.
"They were well loved, respected members of the community. They were known for their kindness and their public service," Hamed said.
Following the attack, #chapelhillshooting and #MuslimLivesMatter quickly became the top trending hashtags on Twitter. Adel Ahmed, CMU MSA president, said the group chose #HumanLivesMatter as a slogan for the vigil to express that the tragic deaths of these students isn't just a loss to the Muslim community, but all of humanity.
Alumna Amanda Jaczkowski said she came to the vigil to support who the students were, and how their death has impacted the world.
"These students were good people, not the people you see targeted in the media who are shooting people or cutting people's heads off," Jaczkowski said. "They want to make a big noise around these teenagers so they can say look, these were good people whose lives were also ended unjustly."
Toward the end of the vigil, participants lit candles and stood together for photographs. The pictures, along with a board covered with roughly 70 post-it notes filled with prayers, well wishes and condolences will be sent to the bereaved families by the MSA.
Roughly 30 students were present at the candle lighting.
The three Muslim students were shot "execution style" in their apartment in Chapel Hill, N.C. Feb. 10 by their neighbor, Christopher Hicks.
The Chapel Hill police and FBI are investigating the shooting, and have yet to confirm a motive. The original police filing and the cited "an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking," as a factor in the shooting.
At the vigil, many students speculated the violent act was a hate crime.
"They're saying the problem was a parking lot, but if everyone killed over parking lot disputes, no one would be left alive," said Mutaz Mohammed, vice president of MSA.
However, both Mohammed and Ahmed said regardless of the motive, the message of their event is the same.
"We don't want to focus on the motives for the crime. That isn't why we're here. All human life matters," Ahmed said. "Most people (and religions) are against crime, against killing."
