The recent murder of three Muslim college students certainly has all the hallmarks of a hate crime — but that doesn’t mean the alleged perpetrator will ever be convicted under a hate crime law.

Relatives of the slain students, who were killed in Chapel Hill, N.C., are pushing for hate crime charges against the person accused of shooting them, but such cases are fairly rare and are very difficult to prove, according to an Associated Press report.

Chapel Hill police say they haven’t yet uncovered evidence that the man accused of shooting them, 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks, did so because of religious anger, saying that another potential motive has emerged: a longtime disagreement over parking space at the condo complex where they lived.

Hicks has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Police say he shot to death 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat; his wife, 21-year-old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha; and his wife’s sister, 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.

The FBI has gotten involved in the case, conducting a preliminary inquiry to determine if federal hate crime laws were violated.

Hicks had a stockpile of firearms in his condo unit, including the pistol he had with him when he turned himself in to authorities following the shootings, according to search warrants that were filed in court this week. The warrant indicated he had four handguns, two shotguns, and six rifles, including a military-style AR-15 carbine, not to mention plenty of ammunition.

The shooting immediately made national headlines, with President Barack Obama suggesting that the shooting was definitely motivated by religious hate, saying that “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.”

The police declined to say how the victims died, but the AP reported that all three had been shot in the head, based on what family members had told the news service.

Dr. Mohammad Yousif Abu-Salha, who is the father of the two women, said the incident has “hate crime writtena ll over it” during a funeral service on Thursday, and dismissed suggestions that it was over a parking spot.

However, legal experts cast doubt on the likelihood of winning a hate-crime conviction, saying that prosecutors would have to prove that he deliberately targeted those killed over religion or race, according to the report. Also, North Carolina doesn’t hate a hate crime statute, although it does have laws against “ethnic intimidation” — a law very few people have been prosecuted successfully under.