Wednesday, our friends at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill learned of the homicides of their peer, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. A man has since been arraigned on three counts of first-degree murder.
Here at the University, we know what it is like to suddenly lose a peer. Even at a school where students number over 20,000 — at Chapel Hill, this number is closer to 30,000 — a single loss permeates the community, sending shockwaves and leaving us to reflect upon what we can and can’t do in the aftermath of such a tragedy. Whether we know the peers in question does not prevent us from experiencing the deep sadness accompanying the loss of young life. We are left confused, heartbroken and unsure of what to do next. We see that even the safest community can be infiltrated by outside hate.
Understanding the despair the students of UNC feel, we express our deepest condolences, and hope to be helpful however possible. There is little we can do across schools and states beyond demonstrating our solidarity. But in that spirit, University students are hosting a Candlelight Vigil in memory of the three students killed at UNC. The vigil will be held in the McIntire Amphitheater Sunday at 9 p.m. We encourage all members of our school to attend and show their support. The loss of these lives has left an indelible mark on the UNC community; we know that pain, and we must be sensitive to it. In our experience, the most we can do is be kind to one another and honor the peers we have lost in ways that are meaningful to their memories.
In the coming weeks, months and perhaps even years, the UNC community will likely see its history as a division between before and after these murders. The job of reporting on these events will fall to the dedicated students who put together The Daily Tar Heel, UNC’s student newspaper. Staffers have already gone to task reporting on the triple homicide, providing excellent coverage, both news and editorial. We know from our own experience that the students who cover this case, who edit and editorialize, make graphics and take photos have the impossible task of investigating issues that deeply affect them. That job is not enviable, but it is indescribably important. The student journalists of UNC have the best knowledge of how to present the student narrative of events, how to capture student sentiment and how to present updates in a way that is meaningful to their community.
We are confident our peers at The Daily Tar Heel will continue to report on the homicide with diligence and skill, and we want to be a resource for them in whatever way possible. It is hard to admit that the facts of a story are taking an emotional toll when your job is to be an objective source of information. We have experienced that emotional toll — in fact, we are still reeling from it. Seek us out if you want our perspective, but more importantly, seek us out when you are struggling not to buckle under the pressure of reporting on this tragedy. We will be here to offer support.
We will never have an answer as to why bad things happen to good people; this is a phenomenon that is too often beyond our control. But we have control over how we respond to tragedy — in this case, the tragedy of another school. As our community puts itself back together, another community has come undone. We know that community, like ours, will be back on its feet soon. In the meantime, we stand in solidarity with UNC.
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