Classmates Remember Shooting Victim Through Food Drive

The UNC School of Dentistry has been living by one motto – “Live Like Deah.”

“Everything since we’ve done since then has been living like Deah,” said his classmate Kaushal Gandhi. “Every time we think about doing a service project we think about what would Deah have done. The obvious answer is Deah would’ve provided service and given himself selflessly.”

Deah Barakat, along with his wife Yusor Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Abu-Salha, were murdered last year in their apartment at Finley Forest Condominiums in Chapel Hill.

Barakat was a student in the UNC School of Dentistry at the time of his death. Over the course of the last year, other dental students have carried his mantle of public service to carry out projects in his honor.

“One of his last Facebook posts was about serving dinner to the homeless people in Durham,” Gandhi said. “We took that as inspiration and right after their deaths we did a food drive.”

Last year the drive collected over 500 pounds of food, which was donated to Urban Ministries of Durham, where Barakat had served.

Now nearing the anniversary of their death, Gandhi said the school is making this food drive an annual tradition.

“We want to remember them every year,” she said. “We don’t want to forget them and what amazing people they were.”

Gandhi said she hopes to raise 600 pounds by February 10, the anniversary of their deaths.

“You can find the true character of a community when they’re faced with tragedy,” she said. “I think this is how we all cope with it, I know it’s certainly how I cope with the loss and I’m very proud to be a part of this community where we’ve come together.”

You can drop food off at the School of Dentistry or e-mail dds@unc.edu to arrange for a large donation to be picked up through next Wednesday.