Neighbors recently said Craig Stephen Hicks, the man charged with fatally shooting of three Muslim-American college students in North Carolina on Tuesday, was angry and confrontational toward people within his community.

Hicks was arrested for shooting the three students, 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his 21-year-old wife Yusor Mohammad and her 19-year-old sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus Tuesday evening.

Hicks, who is white, described himself on Facebook as an atheist and a "gun-toting liberal," the Washington Post reported. He also posted hostile messages toward religion.

"When it comes to insults, your religion started this, not me," he wrote in the "About" section of his Facebook profile. "If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I. But given that it doesn't, and given the enormous harm that your religion has done in this world, I'd say that I have not only a right, but a duty, to insult it, as does every rational, thinking person on this planet."

Karen Hicks, Hicks' wife, claimed her 46-year-old husband shot the three relatives because of an ongoing dispute over a parking space in their apartment complex.

"This incident had nothing to do with religion or the victims' faith, but in fact was related to the longstanding parking disputes that my husband had with the neighbors," she said, according to CNN.

However, the victims' relatives and supporters of the Islamic community said they were killed because of their faith, and the case should be investigated as a hate crime.

Neighbors who live in the condominium complex where Hicks lived and shot three people confessed to being afraid of him. According to them, he displayed loud and aggressive behavior and frequently complained about parking spaces and noise. However, they said he did not display a religious intolerance.

Neighbor Samantha Maness, a 25-year-old Durham Technical Community College student, claimed he was difficult to everyone, regardless of their race or religion. She said Hicks' neighbors held a community meeting last year to discuss his tirades.

"He was aggressive toward a lot of people in the community. He had equal opportunity anger toward a lot of the residents here," she said, reported the Charlotte Observer.

"He kind of made everyone feel uncomfortable and unsafe," Maness added to the Raleigh News and Observer. "He was very angry anytime I saw him."

Meanwhile, Hicks' ex-wife revealed he would "incessantly" watch a Michael Douglas film about a disgruntled and unemployed man who goes on a shooting rampage.

"He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all," she told The Associated Press.

Rob Maitland, an attorney representing Karen Hicks, who was in the process of getting a divorce from her husband, alluded that mental illness was a contributing factor in the shooting.

"[The shooting] highlights the importance of access to mental health care services," he said.

However, family members said the victims had expressed fear of living next to the man because of their faith. According to them, the newlywed Hicks couple began to feel threatened after Mohammad, who wore a hijab, moved into her new husband's apartment.

Related