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Factbox - Profiles of three Muslim students shot in North Carolina

(Reuters) - The following is a glimpse at the lives of three Muslim students who were shot dead near the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill on Tuesday after a dispute over parking, an incident that police are investigating as a possible hate crime. The suspected assailant, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was charged with first-degree murder and is in custody after a brief court appearance on Wednesday. He had posted anti-religion messages to his Facebook page and said he was studying to become a paralegal. Information about the victims - Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, 19 - came from their personal social media pages and the pages of their families and friends: - Deah Shaddy Barakat, who married Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha on Dec. 27, was a dental student at the University of North Carolina. He regularly volunteered to provide free healthcare to the poor in the United States and abroad. Last month, Barakat handed out free dental supplies and food to homeless people in downtown Durham, North Carolina, and had made similar efforts in nearby Raleigh. Over the summer, Barakat travelled to Turkey to help perform fillings, root canals and oral hygiene instruction to refugees. Photos of Barakat show him as being a playful young man who enjoyed basketball and going on adventure trips, including on a recent parasailing excursion in Mexico. "A little adrenaline rush at the beginning and landing, but so peaceful once you're up," he wrote of the experience on Facebook last month. In one of his last text messages, he wrote to his mother: "I love you mama." - Yusor Abu-Salha joined her then-boyfriend, Barakat, on the humanitarian dental mission to Turkey. Abu-Salha, who studied Human Biology at North Carolina State University, was set to begin dental school the next school year. In her social media postings, Abu-Salha celebrated her marriage with photos depicting a joyous wedding ceremony. One image showed Abu-Salha dancing with her father in a flowing wedding dress, a circle of smiling faces surrounding them. "She and Deah found in one another a kindred spirit," sister-in-law Suzanne Barakat said. Other postings showed Abu-Salha as an active young woman who played on a squash sports team and belonged to numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Muslim American Society in her hometown of Raleigh. Abu-Salha was killed alongside her sister, Razan. Both women wore traditional Muslim head scarfs. - Razan Abu-Salha, 19, began studying architecture and environmental design at North Carolina State University last year. In April, she attended a fundraiser for Islamic Relief USA, which provides emergency food, healthcare and other aid to Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Razan was involved with making multimedia art and helped develop a video that was intended to spread positive and hopeful messages about being Muslim-American. Her family described Razan as a highly creative and generous person, whose best friend was her sister, Yusor. (Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Eric Walsh)