RALEIGH, N.C. — The suspect in the deaths of three Muslim college students in North Carolina had at least a dozen firearms stashed in his home, according to search warrants released Friday as world leaders decried the shootings.

Warrants filed in Durham County Superior Court listed an inventory of weapons seized by police from the Chapel Hill condominium of Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

The warrants list four handguns recovered from the home Hicks shared with his wife, in addition to a pistol the suspect had with him when he turned himself in about an hour after the shootings. The warrants list two shotguns and six rifles, including a military-style AR-15 carbine. Police also recovered numerous loaded magazines and cases of ammunition.

Eight spent shell casings were found in the neighboring apartment of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, and his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21. Also killed was the wife’s sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

Relatives say all were shot in the head. Authorities haven’t disclosed exactly how the victims died.

“No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship,” President Obama said in Washington.

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In New York, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was “deeply moved” by thousands thronging Thursday’s funeral. Jordan’s Embassy in Washington said its ambassador visited the families Friday. Yusor Abu-Salha was born in Jordan, as were her parents. The younger sister was born in the U.S.

Police in Chapel Hill said they have yet to uncover any evidence Hicks acted out of religious animus, though they are investigating the possibility. As a potential motive, they cited a longstanding dispute about parking spaces at the condo community where he lived in the same building as the victims.

The FBI is now conducting a “parallel preliminary inquiry” to determine whether any federal laws, including hate crime laws, were violated.

Family members of the slain students are pressing for hate crime charges against the alleged gunman, but legal experts say such cases are relatively rare and can be difficult to prove.

“This has hate crime written all over it,” said Dr. Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, speaking Thursday at the funeral for his daughters and son-in-law. “It was not about a parking spot.”

To win a hate-crime conviction, however, legal experts say prosecutors would have to prove Hicks deliberately targeted those killed because of religion, race or national origin.

North Carolina does not have a specific “hate crime” statute, though it has laws covering acts of “ethnic intimidation” such as hanging a noose, burning a cross or setting fire to a church.

Colon Willoughby, a retired top prosecutor of 27 years for North Carolina’s largest county, said he could remember only a handful of ethnic intimidation cases – namely because defendants often faced other potential charges with far stiffer penalties.

Hicks will likely face either the death penalty or life in prison if convicted on murder charges. Willoughby said evidence about motive would have a role in the prosecution.


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