On Feb. 11,  at 2 a.m. three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, N.C., were discovered shot in the head execution style over an alleged parking dispute. Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, who lived in the same condominium complex as the three students identified as Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, her sister Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her husband Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23 reportedly had exchanged words before regarding parking spots.

According to USAToday.com, neighbors had said that each unit in the complex is assigned one space. Karen Diane Haggerty, Hicks’ wife said, “this incident had nothing to do with the religion or the victims’ faith but was related to a longstanding parking dispute that my husband had with the neighbors.”

After Haggerty had explained that she would be divorcing her husband, USAToday.com reported that her attorney Robert Maitland said’ “It is a simple matter that has nothing to do with the religious faith of the victims…”

The issue here beside the actual incident is the fact that the day the bodies were identified, there was very little mainstream media coverage. These were American born kids. But on the daily news Muslims are portrayed as the root of all evil and irrational. Here if we switch the story around a little, there would be a full round the clock report on how three “Americans” were shot by a Muslim.

Sara Amin, a student, and practicing Muslim at UC Davis commented on the issue, “I guess all I can say is that it both breaks my heart and terrifies me. Those three innocent Muslims look like my brother, my sister, my MSA [Muslim Student Association]. Knowing they were shot down in their home execution style sends a fearful shiver down my back. And more over to know that the media hasn’t cared to cover this story and voice the narrative of the good Muslim youth in this country just crushes me. They were Americans; they were beautiful people with amazing dreams to help others. And today they were ruthlessly murdered by an Atheist hateful white man and the little news there is out there is trying to find motive by saying it was over a parking quarrel. What am I suppose to take away from that? No America, it’s because he hated Muslims, and this propaganda from networks like FOX News continues to fuel this hatred. I urge everyone to tell the other side of the story. To have honest dialogue, to have debate.”

Hicks, according to the Associated Press had several anti-religion comments on his Facebook page.

Living in California, residents here are lucky enough to experience a lot more cultural diversity than in states like North Carolina. A point to be made is that people in these areas of the country are not exposed and often take what they see on the media and adhere that to a general population. These American students “wore Muslim clothing,” said the Mohammad sisters’ father. They wore traditional burkas as part of their faith, and more times than none, those who don’t understand, fear.

People kill each other over Air Jordan sneakers, over cell phones, and most of all religion. The odds were against these kids. Some parts of the world people will kill you for just potentially looking or acting Muslim, so to be Muslim, without understanding, and taking the wrong angry and armed atheist mans parking spot, the shock factor goes out the window thinking that he would do something like this.

The students were good people, providing dental care to Syrian refugees with plans to expand care in other countries. Where is the media coverage on American Muslims doing good for others? It’s non-existent.

Just last month victim Deah Barakat had tweeted, “It’s so freaking sad to hear people saying we should ‘kill Jews’ or ‘kill Palestinians’. As if that’s going to solve anything SMH”

America is going through a tumultuous time for racial equality, and with ISIS attacks and all the other negative coverage that the media portrays, there are no signs of slowing down for ignorance. It’s important to be aware of these happenings but also to not generalize an entire population because of one group.

Today we mourn for these students, but we also fear what else people are capable of.

The circumstances have yet to be deemed as an official hate crime as investigators are still gathering information, but social media has said it’s peace regarding the matter and many are rightly outraged and deeply saddened.