Chapel Hill killer called towing company so many times they banned him.

[benz380]

The man accused of shooting three Muslims at a Chapel Hill condominium had neighbors' cars removed so often that he was eventually banned from using the towing company, according to a driver who often tows vehicles from the complex.

"It was often more than the average person," Christopher Lafreniere, with Barnes Towing, said Thursday. "It actually got to the point that he was not allowed to call a car in. If he called, we wouldn’t go out."

Neighbors have said Craig Stephen Hicks, charged with three counts of first-degree murder, always appeared to be combative and angry about the parking situation at Finley Forest, where residents are allotted one reserved spot.


More:
http://www.wral.com/chapel-hill-murder-suspect-was-banned-from-calling-towing-company/14443091/

[linuxman]

1. Irrelevant

He committed this awful crime purely due to his hatred for Muslims.


Why are some people so desperate to make this out to be some sort of racially motivated hate crime? I'm disgusted by this horrific tragedy to the extreme, but to try and hijack the situation to further a preferred narrative is pretty damn selfish and disgusting as well. It's as if the senseless murder of these three young people isn't enough to stand on its own as a horrific crime. No, no. There must be something more.

The guys strikes me as a control freak loser with a quick temper, shit judgement, and a gun. Predictable results were had. This latest bit of information just proves it further.

[Chemisse]

2. Good points.

We'll likely never know if anti-Muslim attitudes played a role, but it seems his parking spot obsession was reason enough (for him, an overall violent and sicko guy) to shoot.

[Demit]

4. Did you bother to click the link & read the story?

[linuxman]

6. Yes.

Was something I said at odds with what was written there? No.

I can address the story at the link, as well as comment on other reactions elsewhere as they relate to the story.

People seem to be desperate to turn this tragic story into some sort of race-motivated told-ya-so, rather than deal with it for what it is; A small, angry loser with psychosis and a gun killing three young people in the prime of life over the pettiest of things. This story is just more evidence of that.

[Demit]

9. He often posted on FB about organized religion.

And the father of the woman said she had told him she thought the man didn't like who they were and the way they looked. So, yes, I'd say you overlooked those facts in coming to your conclusion.

I'm just responding to your scathing tone and jacked-up language. It's not "desperate" of people to think this could be a hate crime. They're not necessarily "hijacking" the situation or being "selfish" and "disgusting" to think so. Maybe it's not as cut-and-dried as you think.

[2banon]

27. What's FB?

[Tanuki]

31. Facebook n/t

[2banon]

48. That was called a serious brain fart on my part. I actually use the initials myself.

sheesh.

[sulphurdunn]

11. We communicate by narrative.

Fiction seems the preferred narrative of people who think every event must fit the plot of a larger story line.

[kcr]

20. So, people who commit hate crimes are sweet as pie to everyone else?

I'd be willing to bet that's not the case much of the time. He certainly didn't shoot everyone he had a problem with regarding parking or anything else.

[LanternWaste]

25. I imagine for the same reason many people are so desperate to make it anything but a hate crime...

"Why are some people so desperate to make this out to be some sort of racially motivated hate crime? "

I imagine for the same reason many people are so desperate to make it anything but a hate crime...

[ann---]

29. Do you honestly

believe that if those women had not dressed in Muslim garb that he would have bothered to
harass them? Do you honestly believe they are the only people in the complex who MAY
have used more than one space? Please.....

The dead young man's sister said on TV that no one bothered her brother before he started dating the
Muslim woman who became his wife and often had company over to visit him.

[Blue_Tires]

39. Right....And George Zimmerman just wanted to keep his neighborhood crime-free

[IronLionZion]

49. Someone could always ask him why he did it

Dude's alive and in custody.



His lawyers of course want to avoid the higher sentences that come with a hate crime conviction, but I would like to see him get this all come out in court along with witnesses and evidence and other due process before I make any judgments.


The idea of mentally ill atheists targeting people of faith might change some views among church going folks on issues like gun control and mental health.

But since you have to only pick one, and can't possibly have 2 motives. What if it started with a parking dispute, but escalated to a triple murder out of blind hatred? Parking disputes happen every day around here. It usually ends peacefully.

[RandiFan1290]

3. Sounds like a bigot harassing his neighbors

Then he snapped when the tow company wouldn't show up.

The bigots are really trying to excuse their hate.

[GreatGazoo]

5. He loved the movie "Falling Down" -- watched it repeatedly and thought it was funny as hell

That says a lot.

I read it all and am still confused as to whether anyone parked in his spot or he was just inserting himself into any and every parking matter in the complex (?)

[Roland99]

16. Dude had *serious* anger issues

[on point]

35. That's why he deserved a concealed carry gun permit. (Sarcasm)

[PoliticAverse]

28. I guess he didn't get the ending...

"I'm the bad guy?"...

[Myrina]

45. I love that movie too ... but I think it's sad & scary commentary on society ...

... not that it's funny.

[Capt. Obvious]

7. He's the George Zimmerman of his condo's parking lot

[hatrack]

8. Bingo - just another asshole, with anger issues and lots of GUNZ

Just another day in 'Murca.

[carolinayellowdog]

24. Just another asshole, just another victim-- Trayvon's race had nothing to do with it?

just like the religion of the Chapel Hill victims had nothing to do with their murders?

Because individuals always act in a vacuum without being subject to social influences targeting specific groups for hatred?

[hatrack]

40. Oh, I wouldn't say that - I use "asshole" as kind of a catch-all, and racism fits right in

.

[carolinayellowdog]

44. Thanks-- my life has been threatened by an Islamophobe and I'm no Muslim or theist

long story, but the bottom line is that rightwing maniac assholes have certain "buttons" and while it's certainly true that they wouldn't do they things they do if they weren't rightwing maniac assholes, it's also true that they've been programmed by media bias to react to particular things they find intolerable.

Those who contributed to the "programming" that causes maniacs to target particular victims will always react in shocked denial when called on their hatemongering.

[riversedge]

19. Exactly!! I was thinking the same-of how Zimmerman self-appointed himself to

to the neighbor condo czar. Now Hicks thought of himself as the car parking czar. Both carried guns! But Hicks went farther-actually went into the home of the victims.

[hollowdweller]

43. Really. If the kids had been black he would have got away with it.

He could have just said they tried to attack him and he shot them standing his ground.

[mike in raleigh]

10. Now I've heard everything!

A left-wing gun nut? That is a serious outlier. Gun nuts generally skew toward the right.

[MohRokTah]

13. Go read the Gungeon some day. eom

[Duckhunter935]

41. Are you calling DU members that post

in RKBA group gun nuts due to the fact we have different opinions on an issue?

[carolinayellowdog]

12. So he was notorious for being in a perpetual rage over parking

but when he finally decided to murder three people over it, they JUST HAPPENED to be Muslims who JUST HAPPENED to think he hated them over religion. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

The denialism of the obvious in the last few days here has been disgusting.

[Paladin]

15. +1. Ultimately, the anti-Muslim sentiment plays into this tragedy.

And has there been any statement from the apartment management and owners regarding this guy and his hang-ups?

[Tanuki]

17. Thank you. Some are very quick to go into the mode of

"move along, no anti-Muslim bigotry here, it was just about parking", as if the two issues were somehow mutually exclusive.

[el_bryanto]

23. Agreed - they aren't exclusive.

Parking may have been the trigger that set him off; but something in him made him think it was ok to take out his rage on Muslims.

Bryant

[Sheldon Cooper]

18. That's exactly what I was thinking.

[dilby]

33. They also happened to be his neighbor.

Who more than likely was also the one he most often had parking issues with since their apartments were both close to the parking spot.

[LittleBlue]

46. If he wasn't an atheist

few would be denying it. They just don't want it associated with their brand.

[Demeter]

14. Our Condo Association Policy is: Only Staff Can Call for Towing

and we have an emergency number for after-hours problems.

[panader0]

21. If Hicks is the kind of guy to murder three Muslims, I'm sure that his hate

had much more to do with it than a parking situation.

[tblue37]

22. This passage in the linked article seems significant to me:

Hicks' ex-wife, Cynthia Hurley, told The Associated Press that, before they divorced about 17 years ago, his favorite movie was "Falling Down," the 1993 Michael Douglas film about a divorced, unemployed engineer on a shooting rampage.

"That always freaked me out," Hurley said. "He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all."

[Thinkingabout]

26. Again, an angry white man obsessed with guns who could not control himself.

Not everyone needs guns in their possession, if he championed the rights of others he would not be trying to intimidate others with weapons. Sounds like he liked to bully others.

[leveymg]

30. Fascinating to watch the construction of a media coverstory in real time, and who buys into it.

Of course it's not a religious hate crime. That's something that Muslims do.

Some people seem to have never heard of multiple motives for crimes.

[riderinthestorm]

32. Agreed. Multiple motives for the crime seems to be emerging

And yes, I agree this definitely falls under the rubric to be classified as a hate crime.

[leveymg]

34. Yup

Denial of this hate crime is a particularly clumsy narrative.

[carolinayellowdog]

37. Clumsy but not surprising in light of January's Islamophobia hatefest

The Charlie Hebdo murders were entirely attributable to the religion of the perpetrators. The Chapel Hill murders were entirely unrelated to the religion of the victims. (Odd coincidence, the C.H. initials.) What motivates this kind of all-or-nothing, black/white thinking? The bottom line is simply that WE are NEVER to blame for anything, and THEY are ALWAYS to blame for everything. Just fill in the blank to define who is US and who is THEM.

DU has gone a long way down the rabbit hole since 2002-2003 when it was a bastion of sanity and resistance to this kind of groupthink and the media narrative that fed it.

[leveymg]

38. That DU is targeted for perception management tells us its considered to be important enough to mess

around with. And, it says that it's worth keeping what's left of this place intact. That's the good news.

[dilby]

36. Humanity has lost it when people are killing one another over parking spots.

Furthermore, why did the property manager not do anything about this? Obviously this was an issue probably for all tenants of the property and something that should have been addressed way ahead of time. I have lived in apartments where you paid $35 a month for parking, yeah if someone parked in your spot you were pissed but you just called the property manager and they addressed it by having the car towed. I have also lived in apartments where everyone had assigned parking, again if someone parked in your spot you called the property management and they addressed it by usually having the car towed. But these properties all had signs that clearly stated resident parking, guest parking and even the parking spots had apartment numbers painted in them, so it was very clear for anyone who parked in those spots.

[ileus]

42. How many parking spots was he supposed to have?

one ? Three ? none ?

[Tanuki]

47. According to Deah's sister, who was interviewed on MSNBC this morning,

each unit had one designated spot and there were several guest spots where anyone could park. Deah's and the killer's spots were right next to each other; there was a guest spot on the other side of the killer's spot but he insisted that his wife should get to park there and was furious if anyone else parked there, even though they had every right to. Deah's sister said that they had reported the killer's abusive behavior to the apartment manager but were just told that they should call the police if he threatened them. The sister also said that to avoid confrontation Deah and his wife didn't park there and warned anyone who visited them not to do so. She also felt very strongly that the killing was not just about parking and she was upset that the local police had not spoken with their family and did not seem to be interested in investigating anti-Muslim hatred as a contributing factor.