A staunch atheist who ranted against religion allegedly executed three members of a Muslim family over a parking spat.

A STAUNCH atheist who ranted against religion allegedly executed three members of a Muslim family over a parking spat.

Police said Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, shot dead the students “execution-style” in their apartment on the outskirts of the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus.

Dentistry student Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his new wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were found dead on Tuesday evening local time.

Hicks, a self-professed atheist, turned himself into police and is being held in Durham County Jail on three counts of first-degree murder.

The shooting sparked outrage, with many condemning the attack as a hate crime and sharing their condolences online with a #MuslimLivesMatter hashtag.

Police said the shooting may have been motivated by a simmering dispute between Hicks and the victims, who were neighbours, over a parking spot. They have not ruled out the possibility the shooting was a hate crime.

“Our investigators are exploring what could have motivated Mr. Hicks to commit such a senseless and tragic act,” Chapel Hill Police Department Chief Chris Blue said, according to New York Daily News.

“We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of these young people who lost their lives so needlessly.”

Hicks’s Facebook page showed dozens of anti-religious posts, including one calling himself an “anti-theist” saying he has a “conscientious objection to religion” and other memes denouncing Christianity, Mormonism and Islam.

His page also showed a photo of a loaded revolver, alongside a video of a puppy and a promotional clip for Air New Zealand.

One post read: “I’m not an atheist because I’m ignorant of the reality of religious scripture. I’m an atheist because religious scripture is ignorant of reality.”

“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,” he posted under the religious beliefs tab.

more unsafe in my own skin than I have these past few days. I'm an American Muslim and I matter. #MuslimLivesMatter — Rehana (@Rehanana) February 11, 2015

Those 3 lives were educated & aiming to make this world a better place, but their religion was reason for death? #MuslimLivesMatter — Shaddia (@Shawtysayzz) February 11, 2015

Photos of the three victims circulated on social media, including recent wedding pictures of Barakat and Abu-Salha.

Reports said Barakat was a second-year student in dentistry while his wife was planning to begin her dental studies this year.

Razan Abu-Salha was a student at North Carolina State University, according to the UNC university newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel.

A Facebook community — Our Three Winners — has been set up for posts about the three students.