NBA star honors Chapel Hill victim Deah Barakat

U.S. basketball player Stephen Curry planned on honoring Deah Barakat, one of the students gunned down last week by a shooter in North Carolina, by writing his name on a pair of shoes he would have worn during a game.

The sneakers, which had “#RIP Deah Barakat” were stolen hours before the match, ESPN sports news website reported.

“Even though we never met, I think it will hopefully mean a lot to his family and friends that knew what kind of a basketball fan he was to have some kind of peace knowing that people are thinking about him and they're not alone,” the NBA star said, according to the Inside Bay Area news website.

Barakat, who was killed with his wife Yusor Abusalha and her sister Razan Abusalha in their North Carolina Home, was a huge fan of Curry, as his twitter account shows.

A few days after the shooting, Curry tweeted about Barakat saying: “#RIP to my fan and from what I hear a great human being @arabprodigy30, his wife & sister-in-law. Horrible tragedy & prayers to his family!”

Before his December wedding, the University of North Carolina dental student appeared in a photograph bouncing a basketball wearing a bow tie, similar to picture Curry had posed in for GQ magazine earlier in 2014.

Barakat was well-known for his “love for basketball and anything Steph Curry,” his sister, Suzanne Barakat, said in a press conference following the shootings which she described as "execution.”

“So anytime you have a guy that was that supportive and takes it to a whole another level, I'm going to do something tonight," Curry, was quoted as saying.

Suzanne Barakat has called on authorities to investigate the triple-homicide as a “hate crime.”
The victims’ neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.