One Of The Chapel Hill Victims Was Raising Funds To Help Syrian Refugees

On Tuesday night, three young Muslims were shot dead near the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus.

From member station WUNC:

"46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks has been charged with 3 counts of 1st Degree Murder for the murders of Deah Barakat, a second-year student [at UNC] in the School of Dentistry and his wife, Yusor, who had planned to begin her dental studies here in the fall. Her sister, Razan, a student at NC State University, was also killed."

On Facebook, friends are posting memories and photos of the trio — including photos from Deah and Yusor's wedding, which was just one month ago, notes about Razan's artistic talents, and details about Deah's volunteer work.

Deah, 23, was planning on traveling to Syria this summer to provide dental care and relief to refugees, and created a YouCaring page with the UNC Dental School and the Syrian American Medical Society to help raise funds. He wrote:

"In summer of 2015, I as well as ten local dentists and faculty from UNC School of Dentistry will embark on a trip to Rihaniya, Turkey to provide dental care to students of Salaam School...Hundreds of students are currently in need of urgent dental care, mainly consisting of fillings and extractions. Following each procedure, we will provide oral hygiene instructions and fluoride treatment to prevent future tooth decay."

Since his death, supporters have been flooding the page with new donations — more than $40,000 at the time of this posting.

Deah's Facebook page also shows photos from a volunteer event where he passed out dental supplies to the homeless in Raleigh and Durham.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.