RALEIGH, North Carolina -- The father of two students who were killed in the Chapel Hill shooting this week urged President Obama to push a federal investigation into their murder.
"I call on the president of the United States, Barack Obama, the USA and law enforcement to please involve the FBI," Mohammad Abu-Salha said during the funeral on Thursday. "This has hate crime written all over it."
More than 5,000 mourners poured into a soccer field across from the Islamic Association of Raleigh to attend the funeral of the three Muslim college students who were shot and killed. As a blue tarp was laid on the grass in place of a prayer mat, the crowd prayed silently in front of the three caskets containing the bodies of Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor and her sister Razan.
Abu-Salha, the father of Yusor and Razan, was calm, even joking during his speech. But he was also firm in his belief that his children were not murdered over a parking dispute, a possible motive that police have floated.
"These children died in the way of Islam," Abu-Salha said to the crowd. "So please celebrate them; read about them and believe. This is Islam."
"[Deah] was just a very gracious, warming personality," Kareem Abdelnabi, who met Deah through the Muslim Student Association, told Mashable. Abdelnabi said he was making last-minute wedding arrangements the last time he saw Deah.
"There's a saying: If a lot of people like you, that means God loves you. I feel like that speaks volumes today," Abdelnabi said.
Many, many shoes removed so people can set foot on the makeshift prayer mat in the field. #ChapelHillShooting pic.twitter.com/zny5RwkpAO— Colin Daileda (@ColinDaileda) February 12, 2015
As of Thursday, the White House has made no comment following the deaths of the students. President Obama has not been in touch with the families.