RALEIGH, North Carolina — Thousands of mourners assembled at North Carolina State University on Thursday for funeral prayers for the three students killed in Chapel Hill on Tuesday.
Crowds knelt on a large blue tarp spread on a university soccer field across the street from an Islamic center in West Raleigh.
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his newlywed wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were to be buried Thursday afternoon.
The large funeral gathering is just one event Thursday honoring the three students. A vigil is planned for Thursday night at the Brickyard at NCSU, where two of the students had studied as undergraduates and where the other was enrolled.
On Wednesday night, thousands gathered at UNC-Chapel Hill for an emotional candlelight ceremony.
A neighbor of Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha, Craig Stephen Hicks, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Police say a parking dispute may have been behind the slayings, though families of the victims think religious animosity was involved.
The killings made global news, and Thursday’s funeral drew camera crews from outlets as far away as Japan.
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