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Obama condemns ‘outrageous murders’ in North Carolina

A student from Georgetown University, who asked not to be named, sings the call to prayer as a group of Muslim people and their supporters prepare to say the Friday prayers outside the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 13, 2015, in the wake of the murder of three young North Carolina Muslims. The gathering was in memory of the Chapel Hill shooting victims, and to press federal authorities for a hate crime investigation.? (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) A student from Georgetown University, who asked not to be named, sings the call to prayer as a group of Muslim people and their supporters prepare to say the Friday prayers outside the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 13, 2015, in the wake of the murder of three young North Carolina Muslims. The gathering was in memory of the Chapel Hill shooting victims, and to press federal authorities for a hate crime investigation.? (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

By Associated Press February 13, 2015 1 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama has made his first comments about the three young Muslims who were shot to death in North Carolina – saying no one in America should ever be targeted “because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship.”

Obama says in a statement that the FBI will determine whether federal laws were violated in what he calls “the brutal and outrageous murders.”

Police say the three were killed Tuesday – allegedly by their neighbor – in a long-running dispute over parking spaces. But some have questioned whether the violence was connected to their Muslim faith.

The FBI inquiry is running parallel to the local police homicide investigation.

The victims’ families are demanding a hate-crime investigation.