The families and friends of three slain students spent Wednesday grieving the loss and recounting the profound impacts each of the students had on their communities.
The three victims — Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, a 19-year-old first-year environmental architecture student at NC State; her sister Yusor Mohammad, a 21-year-old December 2014 graduate; and Yusor’s husband, Deah Shaddy Barakat, a 23-year-old May 2013 NC State graduate and second-year student at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry — died Tuesday after a shooting in Chapel Hill.
“We lost three gems,” said Ali Sajjad Jaffry, president of the NC State Muslim Students’ Association and a close friend of the victims. “These people really never can be replaced.”
Suzanne Barakat, Deah’s sister, emotionally remembered the lives of her brother and sisters-in-law at a press conference Wednesday, reflecting on the spirituality, kindness and loving dedication the three continuously shared with their community.
“They were gems of their communities and left a lasting impression on the people around them,” Suzanne Barakat said. “They inspired us. They served as role models for the youth.”
Deah, well known for his lightheartedness and dedication to community service, loved basketball and anything with curry, said his sister.
Though he had not yet finished dental school, Deah was already using his knowledge to help others. In preparation for a service trip this summer, Deah and some of his fellow dental school students had been collecting toothbrushes, dental supplies and funding for the past several months to help Syrian refugee children in Turkey who have urgent dental care needs in addition to being displaced by war.
In a YouTube video he posted in September, Deah requested help with his endeavor saying, “Have you ever felt helpless about the situation in Syria and felt like you couldn’t do anything about it? Well this is your opportunity to help. This summer I’m embarking on a trip to Turkey with 10 dentists to help Syrian refugee students in need of urgent dental care. We’ll be doing extractions, fillings, root canals and oral hygiene instruction to those most in need. We’ll also focus on prevention. We’ll be passing out toothbrushes and toothpaste within refugee camps so that we can eliminate the problem before it begins.”
The Project: Refugee Smiles funding page at www.youcaring.com/syriandentalrelief says the efforts are a collaboration of the UNC School of Dentistry as well as the Syrian American Medical Society. As of Wednesday night, the project had exceeded its $20,000 goal, raising more than $142,000.
“These kids don’t have the access to the same health care as us, and their prolonged pain can easily be taken care of with the work that we do, but we need the proper funding,” Deah said in the video.
Deah’s father, Namee Barakat, spoke at a press conference Wednesday and described his son as “as pure as you can get.”
“He never had any arguments with anybody, period. Everybody loved him in the community and outside the community. The same thing for Yusor and her sister. Beautiful people, very peaceful, you just can’t ask for anybody more pure,” Namee Barakat said.
The father said his son frequently gave himself to others, even enlisting his family to cook a homemade meal for his classmates. Deah’s mother Leila Barakat spent most of Tuesday cooking so the family could deliver lunch on Wednesday, before she received the tragic news.
One of Deah’s closest friends, BoubekeurDahmane, said his favorite verse of the Quran was chapter 94, verse six: “Surely with hardship comes ease.”
Fatima Hedadji, the Outreach Coordinator for the Muslim Students’ Association, said the three students were tremendously impactful, spending much of their free time volunteering and actively participating in their faith.
“They literally spent their lives dedicated to the community,” Hedadji said.
Yusor planned to join Deah at UNC Dental in the fall and was described by her sister-in-law as having calming presence, perfectly matching Deah’s gentle demeanor.
The pair married on Dec. 27 surrounded by family and honeymooned in Mexico for a week, according to several family friends.
Although they had known each other since they met in elementary school at the Al-Iman School on Ligon Street, down the street from NC State, the two became engaged after spending time together as members of the NC State Muslim Students’ Association’s executive board two years ago, according to Jaffry.
“She and Deah found in one another a kindred spirit,” Suzanne Barakat said of Yusor.
An “overflowing ocean of advice,” Yusor was capable of effortlessly putting those around her at ease, according to Maliha Talib, a junior studying biochemistry and microbiology and a close friend of Yusor.
“She listened to my worries about medical school,” Talib said in an email. “When she entered a room, all eyes were on her and her words brought comfort and inner peace to all when she spoke.”
Talib described a time that demonstrated some of Yusor’s most memorable and admirable qualities.
“I distinctly remember on one occasion reaching out to her after a tough day at school and her urging me to make it through these next few semesters at school with courage. She called me her sister—she treated me like her sister. She told me how important it was that I was in her life and how important it was for us to love life.”
Yusor’s ability to make her friends feel like family stood out among many people who were close to her.
Mussarut Jabeen, the principal of the primary school all three students attended, described Yusor as being not “just a friend, but more of a sister.”
“You could always count on her,” Jabeen said. “She was exactly the kind of person you would want to sit with because she was the light of the conversation. I don’t think she deserved to die in that kind of way, but I know she was a good Muslim. She was a role model not just for the younger kids but a role model for all of us. She was passionate about what she did and she inspired a lot of us to keep going and achieve what we all want as individuals.”
Razan, at only 19, was “tremendously gifted,” according to Suzanne Barakat, who described her as “incredibly creative, giving, generous and a loyal friend.”
Hedadji said of her close friend Razan that she never wasted a second of her life.
“That’s not a hindsight perspective,” Hedadji said Wednesday. “If you would have asked anyone 24 hours ago, before they died, the same question, they would have said the same thing.”
Many NC State students who were close to Razan were too grief- stricken to speak about her life and friendships Wednesday.
Chancellor Randy Woodson released a statement offering his condolences.
“Understandably, this violence has left many in our NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill communities feeling both saddened and uneasy,” the statement said. “I and other NC State officials have reached out to our students, particularly our Muslim students, and will continue offering support to them and the entire NC State community.”
Deah’s family expressed appreciation for the community’s support and asked for people to respect their privacy during this painful time.
“We appreciate your concerns and the outpouring of love and support from our neighbors, student community and the community at large,” Suzanne Barakat said.
