CLOSE A man has been charged with the murder of a muslim teenager from Virginia whose body has been found after going missing on Sunday. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland). Buzz60

Fairfax Police believe they found the body of a 17-year-old girl who they think went missing from The ADAMS Center Mosque early Sunday morning. (Photo: Screenshot)

FAIRFAX, Va. - Police believe remains found in a Va. pond belong to a teen who was assaulted and killed after leaving a Virginia mosque early Sunday morning.

Nabra Hassanen, 17, was with a group of friends near the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center Mosque following Ramadan prayers early Sunday when they got into a dispute with a man driving a red car, according to police. Hassanen's friends said the man assaulted the 17-year-old and they ran back to the ADAMS Center and left the teen behind, police said.

Fairfax Police began searching at 4 a.m. Sunday. The body was found Sunday around 3 p.m. floating in a pond in Sterling, Virginia.

Police noticed a car driving suspiciously in the area and stopped it, arresting the driver, who was taken into custody and identified as 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, of Sterling. He has been charged with murder.

Fairfax County police tweeted Monday that they are not investigating the attack as a hate crime.

We are NOT investigating this murder as a hate crime. https://t.co/f6TegmdKMRpic.twitter.com/mlGzrQfiMk — Fairfax Co. Police (@fairfaxpolice) June 19, 2017

The chief medical examiner will confirm the identity of the victim and determine the exact cause and manner of her death.

Nabra was a sophomore at South Lakes High School in Reston, Va., and would have been starting her junior year this fall, friends said. The slaying occurred during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from eating from dawn to sunset. Many mosques hold late night prayers, and people eat a pre-dawn meal called suhoor before they begin fasting.

Across the country, Muslim leaders have been sharing a GoFundMe page to help raise money for Hassanen's family.

Muslim leaders across the country have been sharing this GoFundMe page that has raised more than $20,000 to help support the family.

The ADAMs Center Mosque said in a statement that the community is "devastated" by the slaying.

"It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth. ADAMS has licensed counselors on site to assist anyone in need of counseling during these difficult times," the statement said.

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2tjGGBA</s>Fairfax County police announced Sunday (18 June) they found a body they believe to be that of a missing teen and that an individual has been charged with murder. Authorities had been searching for the teen since 4am local time on Sunday morning.

Police said that an initial investigation found that she had been walking with friends when she got into "a dispute" with a man driving a car who then "got out and assaulted the victim".

Police in the Virginia county said that they began an "extensive search" after the girl's friends were unable to find her, leading one officer to stop a car "driving suspiciously in the area".

The suspicious car's driver was taken into custody. Police originally said charges were pending further investigation but later announced that 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, of Sterling, had been charged with murder.

Around 3pm on Sunday, police said they found the remains which they believe to be the missing girl in a pond around Ridgetop Circle in Sterling, an area of neighbouring Loudoun county. Police said the Office of the Chief Medical Examine will confirm whether the body is that of the missing teen and determine the cause and manner of death.

Local reports said that the girl was a Muslim teen named Nabra who was walking to a mosque though in a news conference said "there doesn't seem to be indication this was a bias incident." NBC 4 Washington reported that a baseball bat had been recovered in the area.

Muslim progressive activist Linda Sarsour tweeted a picture allegedly of Nabra, saying "My heart is BROKEN. Beautiful 17 year old Nabra beaten to death in Virginia and body found in a pond. I can't take this anymore."

Fairfax Police said that they were working to provide assistance to the family and thanked Loudoun County's sheriff's office as an "invaluable resource to this investigation".</s>Remains believed to be of the 17-year-old were found about 3 p.m. in a pond in Sterling.</s>Police found remains Sunday thought to be those of a missing Virginia teenager who they say was assaulted and disappeared overnight after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area, and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with the case.

The mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, Virginia, and relatives identified the girl as 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston.

Fairfax County (Virginia) police identified the man charged with murder in her death as Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling.

According to accounts from police and a mosque official, a group of four or five teens were walking back from breakfast at IHOP early Sunday when they were confronted by a motorist. All but one of the teens ran to the mosque, where the group reported that the girl had been left behind, according to Deputy Aleksandra Kowalski, a spokeswoman for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

"Immediately thereafter, the ADAMS' personnel notified both Loudoun County and Fairfax County authorities who immediately began an extensive search to locate the missing girl," the mosque said in a statement.

Loudoun and Fairfax police jointly conducted an hours-long search around Dranesville Road and Woodson Drive in Herndon, which is in Fairfax. Remains thought to be the girl's were found about 3 p.m. Sunday in a pond in the 21500 block of Ridgetop Circle in Sterling. During the search, an officer spotted a motorist driving suspiciously in the area and arrested Torres, police said.

Police said they collected several articles of evidence but declined to provide further details.

The girl's mother said detectives told her that Nabra was struck with a metal bat.

"I can't think of a worse instance to occur than the loss of a 17-year-old on Father's Day, as the father of a 17-year-old myself," Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman said.

A possible hate-crime motivation is among the things authorities are investigating, police said. Detectives think the remains are those of the girl, but the chief medical examiner's office will confirm the identity and manner of death, Fairfax police spokeswoman Tawny Wright said.

Shoyeb Hassan, the co-chair of ADAMS, said that during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the mosque has extra prayers at midnight and 2 a.m., and members frequently go to McDonald's or the 24-hour IHOP to eat before they start their fast at sunrise, as Nabra and her friends were doing.

The killing rattled a Muslim community in the midst of celebrating Ramadan, a month of religious observance in which adherents fast from sunrise to sunset for 30 days. The period culminates in the feast-like celebration Eid-al-Fitr, which is expected to fall next weekend.

"We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event," Rizwan Jaka, chairman of ADAMS, said in a statement. "It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth."

ADAMS is northern Virginia's largest mosque, and with 11 chapters around Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia is among the nation's most well-known congregations. According to ADAMS's website, the Sterling location is 25,000 square feet and can accommodate more than 700 people. It includes a youth weekend school, a gymnasium and multipurpose hall, the site says.

Arsalan Iftikhar, an international human rights lawyer and commentator, said that he and his wife were at the mosque for evening prayers, which ended about 12:30 a.m. Sunday. As they were pulling out of the parking lot, he said, he saw a group of teenagers congregating and talking loudly about going out to eat. The girls, he said, were wearing the abaya, a full-length dress many Muslim women wear.

Police have not said that the slaying was a hate crime, but the issue was on the minds of many Muslims.

The ADAMS Center has a paid armed security guard at the Sterling site, according to Iftikhar. He said many mosques have increased security since six Muslim worshipers were killed at a mosque in Quebec earlier this year.

Nabra's slaying sent a chill through the community when news spread Sunday.

"People are petrified, especially people who have young Muslim daughters," Iftikhar said.

Virginia officials condemned the killing Sunday night and expressed condolences to Nabra's family.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, D, said he and his wife, Pam, were "deeply disturbed" by the assault and killing.

"There is absolutely no place for this kind of violence in our Commonwealth," Northam said in a statement. "Every Virginian should feel safe and welcome in our communities, and no parent should ever have to experience such a heartbreaking tragedy. As the police investigation continues, I urge all Virginians to keep Nabra's friends and family in their hearts."

"The ADAMS Center has always welcomed me and so many in Northern Virginia like family," Herring said. "This unspeakable attack feels like an assault on our entire community. Words fail at a time like this, so we'll all have to do the best we can to surround them with the love and support they've always shown each of us."

On a crowd-funding page to support Nabra's family, donations surged Sunday night, jumping from $10,000 to nearly $18,000 in less than an hour. Shortly before 10 p.m., the fundraising page had met its $25,000 goal.

In a neighborhood full of Muslim immigrant families, the Hassanens' modest Reston apartment was the one overflowing with friends and laughter most days, friends said Sunday.

"It's a family where if you're feeling down and you need to laugh, this is where you go," said Samar Ali, 26, who grew up in the Hassanens' apartment complex.

On Sunday night, that apartment normally filled with laughter was crammed with more than 30 women in traditional Muslim garb, sobbing and comforting each other. At the center of the crowded, dimly lit living room was Nabra's mother, Sawsan Gazzar.

"Please pray for me, please pray for me," Gazzar sobbed in Arabic. Her phone rang constantly. To her brother and sister in her native Egypt, she said, "Pray for me that I can handle this ... I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness."

The night before, Gazzar had cooked a feast for Nabra, the oldest of her four daughters, who wanted to host a big iftar break-the-fast dinner for all her friends from ADAMS and South Lakes High School, where she just finished 10th grade.</s>Virginia Muslim teenager's death being investigated as road rage, police say

Mohmoud Hassanen tells Guardian his 17-year-old daughter, Nabra, who was killed on Sunday, that he does not believe authorities’ version of events

Mohmoud Hassanen: ‘When I go to court I’m going to look him in the eye: why did you do this to my daughter?’ Photograph: David Smith for the Guardian

Police say the killing of a Muslim teenager near a mosque close to Washington DC is being investigated as a road rage incident.

But the father of Nabra Hassanen rejected detectives’ theory and said he believed his 17-year-old daughter was targeted because she was Muslim.

Nabra was with friends walking back from a McDonald’s in Sterling, Virginia, in the early hours of Sunday when they got into a dispute with a man in a car, according to police. Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, has been charged with her murder and is being held without bail pending a court appearance on 19 July.

“This tragic case appears to be the result of a road rage incident involving the suspect, who was driving and who is now charged with murder, and a group of teenagers who was walking and riding bikes in and along a roadway,” a Fairfax County police statement said. “Our investigation at this point in no way indicates the victim was targeted because of her race or religion.”

Muslim girl, 17, killed on way home from Virginia mosque

However, Nabra’s father, Mohmoud Hassanen, rejected that version of events. “I don’t believe this story,” he told the Guardian by phone on Monday afternoon. “I tell the detective the same thing.”

Hassanen, 60, said he had heard from a detective about a related incident in which the suspect was angered by a boy on a bike, yet he chose to attack Nabra instead. “He killed my daughter because she is Muslim. That’s what I believe. That’s what I told him.”

A driver for a limousine company, Egyptian-born Hassanen moved to the US in 1987 and Nabra, born in the US, was the eldest of four daughters. On Saturday, he recalled, she had 13 Muslim friends over at the family flat in Reston, Virginia, to break fast at about 8.30pm. They left at 9.30 or 9.45pm for late night prayers, held during the last 10 days of Ramadan, at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (Adams) mosque in nearby Sterling.

Speaking in sombre tones on Monday morning at his home, Hassanen said: “After everybody had gone, after about three or four minutes, she came back. I think maybe she forgot something. Then she came inside the kitchen. She just kissed me, she said goodbye. It was the last time I saw her.”

He had suggested to Nabra that he would pick her up, Hassanen added, but she said a friend’s father was going to collect the group. Then, at about 3am, police told Hassanen that she was missing. Around 15 children were interviewed at the Adams mosque as witnesses, he continued.

Breathing hard to keep his emotions in check, Hassanen said they gave this version of events: “My daughter fell down. When she fell down, the guy hit her with a baseball stick. He went and drove his car and came back, and picked her up and threw her in a lake a mile from the mosque.”

The suspect was rapidly caught, confessed that he was responsible and led them to the lake, he added.

Despite the police being quick to indicate they are not treating it as a hate crime, Hassanen feels sure that Nabra’s appearance played some part. “He followed the girls, and all of them had head cloths, meaning they are Muslim, and he had a baseball stick.

“He was running behind these kids. I told the detective: ‘I want to ask him one question. Why did he do that? Because he doesn’t like Muslims, or what?’ He tells me he has no answer for that. This answer is going to be in the court.”

Asked if he thought his daughter was killed because she was Muslim, Hassanen replied: “I believe so, 100%. In the McDonald’s there’s a lot of kids, a lot of people; why did he run behind this girl especially? For what?

“When I go to court I’m going to look him in the eye: why did you do this to my daughter? Then I’m going to forgive him and leave him to God’s face. The lord is going to judge him. He took my daughter’s life.”

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 Nabra Hassanen was killed on Sunday morning in Virginia. Photograph: facebook

Hassanen declined to directly blame Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies for creating a hostile climate. “Maybe? Who knows. Maybe. The media is very important to leave a message to these people, to racists.”

On Monday morning Hassanen was gathered with grieving, Arabic-speaking friends in his apartment in the suburb, about seven miles from Washington’s Dulles international airport. He recalled how his daughter loved fashion and music, had volunteered for work helping homeless people.

As scenes from Mecca played on television, he said of his daughter: “She was 17 years old. She had no problem with me or her mum or anything. She’s a very nice girl. She liked to help. She did something good.

“I teach my kids how to be good Muslims, how to feel about the other people. She had Christian friends, she had Spanish friends, she had Muslim friends. I raised my kids just to be nice. We don’t have hate. We don’t teach about hate. We teach to be good to the other people: if it’s Muslim or Jew or Christian or whatever, it’s human.”

The killing has shocked the Muslim community gathering to pray at the Adams mosque, the biggest in northern Virginia, which recently opened a new extension. It advertises services such as food, coat and blanket drives, family fun nights and funeral services. On Monday, as worshippers came and went as normal, staff declined to comment beyond an official statement.

The number of anti-Muslim bias incidents in the US jumped 57% in 2016 to 2,213, up from 1,409 in 2015, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said in a report last month. Fairfax County, an affluent area where Hillary Clinton won 65% of the vote in last November’s election, is not noted for religious tension or intolerance.

Members of the local Islamic community were divided on the impact of Trump and his policies. Randy Myers, a 44-year-old Muslim, said he believed there was a lot of hate in the US and that Trump was fuelling hostility. “Trump being the president plays a big part because of the things that come out of his mouth,” he said.

Wajid Khan, 46, a former security supervisor originally from Pakistan, cautioned against rushing to political conclusions: “It’s not related to Trump. Give him a chance. Muslims are not afraid: I’ve lived here for 25 years and it’s a peaceful community.”

Additional reporting by Oliver Laughland in New York</s>REUTERS: A teenage Muslim girl killed near a Virginia mosque was an apparent victim of "road rage" and her death is not being investigated as a hate crime, police said on Monday.

The 17-year-old girl was assaulted before dawn on Sunday in Sterling, Virginia, about 30 miles (50 km) west of Washington, after attending overnight prayers for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when many Muslims fast from dawn until sunset.

The exact cause of her death has not been made public, but a statement from the Fairfax County police said Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, has been arrested and charged with murder.

Martinez, a Sterling resident, was in his car when he got into a dispute with the girl and a group of her friends as they walked back from a McDonald's restaurant following prayers at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque, known as ADAMS, police said.

"This tragic case appears to be the result of a road rage incident involving the suspect," a police statement said. "Our investigation at this point does not indicate the victim was targeted because of her race or religion."

Officials have declined to identify the girl, with police saying only that she was from Reston, Virginia, but the Washington Post has named her as Nabra Hassanen.

She and her friends were dressed in abayas, the robe-like dress worn by some Muslim women, according to the Post, prompting fears the victim was targeted because she was Muslim.

Police arrested Martinez an hour or two after the assault when he was seen driving suspiciously. They found what they believed to be the girl's body on Sunday in a pond.

"Something happened and he (Martinez) became upset. The group started separating a little bit. The victim happened to be closest to him and then he assaulted her," Tawny Wright, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman, said by telephone.

She said she was unable to comment further.

Martinez was assigned a public defender on Monday and a judge ordered that he remain in jail without bail, according to Raymond Morrogh, the Fairfax commonwealth's attorney, the county's chief prosecutor.</s>Police found remains Sunday that are believed to be those of a missing Northern Virginia teenager who they say was assaulted and went missing overnight after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area, and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with the case.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Martinsville Bulletin.</s>Police have arrested and charged a man in the murder of a Muslim teenaged girl who went missing early Sunday morning in northern Virginia. Authorities haven't released details of how Nabra Hassanen of Reston, Va., died but tweeted that they are not investigating the killing as a hate crime.

Hassanen and four or five others teenagers had left the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) mosque in Sterling, Va., on Sunday to get breakfast at an IHOP a little more than a mile away, The Washington Post reports, citing accounts from police and a mosque official.

Fairfax County police say the teenagers were walking back to the mosque when they got into a dispute with a man in a car. Authorities say the suspect, 22-year-old Darwin A. Martinez Torres, got out of the car and assaulted Hassanen, whose age has been reported as 16 and 17.

The Post reports that the teenagers ran to the mosque but that Hassanen wasn't with them. Her friends reported her missing at around 4 a.m. ET, and police began conducting an extensive search of the area using a police helicopter, K-9 teams and search and rescue teams.

During the search, according to police, an officer noticed a car being driven suspiciously. The driver, identified as Torres, was arrested as a suspect in Hassanen's disappearance.

Police say they found remains of a female in a nearby pond around 3 p.m. that day; the medical examiner's office will conduct an autopsy in order to identify the remains and the cause and manner of death.

Fairfax County police spokesman Don Gotthardt told NPR that while the department has no indication so far that Hassanen's murder is a bias or hate-related crime, it will take all evidence into account.

"The fortunate thing is we have someone under arrest, and we will be very, very meticulous in our investigation," Gotthardt said.

Shoyeb Hassan, co-chair of ADAMS, told the Post that during the last 10 days of Ramadan, "the mosque has extra prayers at midnight and 2 a.m., and members frequently go to McDonald's or the 24-hour IHOP to eat before they start their fast at sunrise, as Nabra and her friends were doing."

Hassanen's mother told the Post that detectives said the girl had been struck with a metal bat. Sawsan Gazzar said her daughter had borrowed an abaya from her to wear to Ramadan services at the mosque on Saturday night, as she "wasn't ordinarily religiously observant", according to the newspaper. Gazzar said a detective had told her that Hassanen had tripped over the long dress and fallen to the ground before she was hit.

"I think it had to do with the way she was dressed and the fact that she's Muslim," Gazzar told the newspaper. "Why would you kill a kid? What did my daughter do to deserve this?"

"We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event," Imam Mohamed Magid, executive imam at ADAMS, said in a statement. "It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth."

U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia said in a statement: "We are heartbroken and horrified by the news of the brutal murder of a beautiful 17-year old girl. We know there is no greater pain for any parent and Chip and I extend our prayers to her family and loved ones at this difficult time and the entire ADAMS Center community."

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe tweeted, "Dorothy & I are heartbroken over this senseless act of violence. We are praying for Nabra's family & ADAMS Community."

A crowdfunding campaign set up to raise money for Hassanen's family had already collected more than $160,000 as of Monday afternoon.</s>A 22-year-old man has been charged with murder over the death of A 17-year-old Muslim girl who was abducted from outside a mosque near Washington.

Nabra Hassanen was attacked early on Sunday after she and several friends got into a dispute with a motorist in Sterling, Virginia, about 30 miles from the capital.

Police said they were not investigating it as a hate crime, the Washington Post reported.

During the incident the motorist got out of his car and assaulted her, police said. Her friends scattered and the teenager was later reported missing, leading to a police search. The missing girl's remains were found in a pond in Sterling.

Police said a medical examiner was conducting an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.

During the search police stopped a motorist "driving suspiciously" and arrested him.

The driver, later identified as Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, was charged with murder.

Isra Chaker, a family friend of the victim, said on Facebook that the driver had swung a baseball bat at the girls.

The victim and four or five friends were reportedly walking back from breakfast at a fast food restaurant.

When they were attacked they ran to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque.</s>STERLING, Va. — A Muslim teenager is missing and believed dead after she was abducted by a man as she and her friends were walking to a suburban Virginia mosque for Ramadan prayers, police said.

A body of a young woman, who authorities believe to be Nabra Hassanen, 17, was found Sunday in a pond in Sterling, Virginia, police said.

The same day police arrested a 22-year-old Sterling man after a traffic stop and charged him with her murder, said Tawny Wright, spokeswoman for Fairfax County Police.

Authorities are waiting for the medical examiner to make a final determination of the girl’s identity and how she died before releasing her name, Wright said. But a statement sent to CNN from the Virginia Lt. Governor’s office said that “detectives and relatives believe the body found is Nabra Hassanen.”

While the episode has shaken the local Muslim community, Fairfax police say they are not investigating the girl’s killing as a hate crime.

Wright told CNN that “detectives didn’t receive an indication during their interviews” that the attack was a targeted or racially biased incident.

Friends were walking to mosque for Ramadan

Police began searching for the girl around 4 a.m. Sunday after they received reports from a group of teenagers saying their friend was missing, Wright said.

The teens told police they’d been walking from a McDonalds to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center for Ramadan prayer when they ended up in a dispute with a man driving in a car, Wright told CNN.

The mosque holds several prayers throughout the night during the celebration of Ramadan, according to Tajul Islam, a receptionist at the ADAMS Center. The group of friends had left the mosque to eat at the McDonalds before the next fast began when they were attacked.

The man allegedly got out of the car and assaulted the 17-year-old girl as her friends ran to the mosque, where they called police, Wright said.

As Fairfax County Police and the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office searched the area early Sunday, police stopped a man who was “driving suspiciously,” Wright said.

Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, was taken into custody as a suspect in the case and subsequently charged with murder, Wright said.

Torres couldn’t be reached for comment and CNN could not determine if he has retained a lawyer.

Detectives found the body, thought to be the girl’s, in the pond around 3 p.m. Sunday.

On Monday, Nabra’s friends gathered outside her Reston, Virginia, apartment with flowers. In another apartment her father, Mahmoud Hassanen, grieved with other friends and neighbors while her mother mourned separately several doors away.

More than 40 Muslim families live together in the quiet Cedar Ridge apartment complex.

Hassanen, Nabra’s father, told CNN that his daughter was a warm and giving person.

“She loved everybody,” he said. “She liked to help other people.”

Hassanen said he immigrated from Egypt in 1987 and that he is an American citizen. He said he asked police why the suspect killed his daughter but they wouldn’t comment on a potential motive.

And while police say they’re not investigating the attack as a hate crime, Hassanen believes that’s exactly what it was.

“This is a hate crime,” he said. “It’s racism. Getting killed because she’s Muslim.”

“I feel sorry for the guy who take my daughter’s life,” he said. “Why? We have to help each other.”

Although the killing has not been officially declared a hate crime, its timing — coming amidst a recent spike in attacks on Muslims — has raised concerns in the Muslim community.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesperson for the Council on American Islamic Relations, told CNN that his organization will be calling for a thorough investigation of a possible biased motive.

“We’d like to hear from the witnesses to the initial attack as to whether they heard any biased statements,” Hooper said. “Even if not, why is this individual targeting a group of people dressed in Muslim attire?

“Would they have been targeted if they hadn’t been of a certain faith or ethnicity? These are the kinds of questions we ask,” he said.

The attack happened hours before a man drove a van into a crowd of worshipers at a mosque in London.

“We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event,” said the ADAMS Center in a statement. “It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth.”

A crowdfunding campaign for the girl’s family has already raised more than $170,000.
The body of a teenager from Reston, Virginia is found in a pond in Sterling, Virginia. A suspect is arrested and charged with murder.