text: According to a Fairfax County Police Department spokesperson, the investigation into the slaying of a 17-year-old girl in Virginia is not being investigated as a hate crime at this time. "Based on the information that detectives have, there's no indication that this was a hate or bias crime," FCPD spokesperson Don Gotthardt tells Bustle of the investigation into the murder allegedly committed by a 22-year-old man. Gotthardt declined to identify the victim, but media reports have named the deceased teenage girl as Nabra Hassanen. 
   
   Early Sunday morning, after she attended a Dulles-area mosque's midnight Ramadan prayers, Hassanen and her friends were confronted by a motorist as they walked back to the mosque from a nearby IHOP. The motorist confronted the group and all but one — Hassanen — ran back to the mosque. Remains believed to belong to the girl were later found in a nearby pond. 
   
   After reports spread that the Hassanen's murder may be under investigation as a hate crime, the FCPD tweeted, "We are NOT investigating this murder as a hate crime"; however, Gotthardt says that if, as the investigation progresses, the murder does seem to have been motivated by bias, detectives will "exhaust all investigative leads." Under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, hate crimes are defined as "crimes in which the perpetrators acted based on a bias against the victim's race, color, religion, or national origin," as well as "those based on biases of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or gender," according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's website. 
   
   According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's 2016 hate census, last year saw a dramatic increase in the number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the U.S: from 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016. Overall, the SPLC report notes, the number of hate groups in the U.S. rose from 892 in 2015 to 917 in 2016. The Pew Center's analysis of the FBI's anti-Muslim hate crime statistics showed that in 2015, American Muslims faced the same level of bias-related violence as they did in the post-9/11 era. 
   
   Members of the Fairfax County Muslim community said they were taken aback by the killing. "We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event," Rizwan Jaka, chairman of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, the mosque where Hassenen attended prayers, said in a statement. "It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth." ||||| Tweet with a location 
   
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   The death of a Virginia teenager who police say was assaulted and then disappeared after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area isn't being investigated as a hate crime, authorities said Monday. 
   
   On Sunday, police found the girl’s remains 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, and relatives identified the girl as 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston. 
   
   Fairfax County police identified the man charged with murder in her death as Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling. On Monday, they did not release any explanation as to why they weren’t investigating the murder as a hate crime. 
   
   Relatives identified the slain teen as Nabra Hassanen, 17, right, of Reston, seen in a social media post with a filter. (All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center) 
   
   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 L. Chapman 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. 
   
   Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, of Sterling, has been charged in the teen’s death. (Fairfax County Police) 
   
   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 dawn to sunset for about a month. 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 the District 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. 
   
   [Van strikes crowd near mosque in London; one person is arrested] 
   
   Police said Monday they aren’t investigating the death as a hate crime, but the issue was on the minds of many Muslims on Sunday. 
   
   Last month, two men on a Portland train were stabbed and killed after they intervened to protect two girls who were being harassed with anti-Muslim threats, according to authorities. 
   
   Sunday night, a van struck a crowd of pedestrians, including worshipers leaving a pair of mosques in London. Witnesses said the pedestrians were struck as they departed late-night prayers. 
   
   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. 
   
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   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. 
   
   Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said she visited ADAMS Sunday and met with leadership and law enforcement officials. 
   
   “We are heartbroken and horrified by the news of the brutal murder of a beautiful 17-year old girl,” Comstock said in a statement. 
   
   The congresswoman represents Virginia’s 10th District, where the mosque is located. “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,” she said. “We commend the Fairfax County Police Department and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office for their diligent work in apprehending the perpetrator. This case should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” 
   
   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.” 
   
   Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) echoed Northam, urging Virginians to show compassion and kindness. 
   
   “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 crowdfunding 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 one another. 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. 
   
   The iftar was packed — Nabra was always popular and sociable. And when it ended, a friend’s mom drove some of the teens to ADAMS for the midnight prayers that mark the last 10 days of Ramadan. Family members said she frequented the mosque during Ramadan. 
   
   And during the holy month, the mosque was filled with teens like her. 
   
   Gazzar said she thought Nabra and her friends would eat at the mosque after the prayers, and she would have forbidden her from walking to IHOP in the middle of the night. But she also wasn’t surprised that the girl went out; she and other teens had done it safely last year. 
   
   Other mothers in the apartment Sunday night echoed the same thought repeatedly — they and their children had always felt safe taking the sidewalk path to IHOP or McDonald’s for a fun meal on those final Ramadan nights. 
   
   Gazzar loaned her daughter an abaya to wear to the mosque Saturday night, since Nabra didn’t typically wear traditional Muslim clothes. She heard from a detective that when the man in the car started shouting at the teens, Nabra tripped over the long garment and fell to the ground, just before she was struck. 
   
   “I think it had to do with the way she was dressed and the fact that she’s Muslim,” Gazzar said. “Why would you kill a kid? What did my daughter do to deserve this?” 
   
   Nabra was a diligent student, so much so that although she was extremely proud to get her first job ever at a McDonald’s, she quit when her manager didn’t understand that studying for a school exam took priority over a work shift. Family members were quick to note her interest in fashion and makeup, and her recently acquired nose ring. 
   
   All four Hassanen girls were born in the United States — the younger ones are 11, 10 and 3. Ali described Nabra as a “daddy’s girl” who was close with her father, a bus-and-limo driver. Her father spent Sunday at the mosque, Ali said, beside himself with worry all day. 
   
   Gazzar’s phone rang yet again, and this time she didn’t answer. She turned instead to the hundreds of photos stored on it, scrolling through them until she landed on one of Nabra visiting her parents’ homeland in Egypt, laughing as she embraced two of the teen’s little sisters. 
   
   “They’d all be laughing. They used to be really happy.” 
   
   She gazed into the girls’ eyes, and cried harder. 
   
   Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated the number of Muslim girls who were being harassed in Portland. One of the two girls identifies as Muslim.The story has also been updated to clarify earlier information. ||||| See more of Mindy Kaling on Facebook ||||| FAIRFAX, VA (WUSA9) - 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. 
   
   The girl was walking from The ADAMS Center toward a shopping center to get food with a group of friends around 3 a.m., police said. 
   
   That is when a man driving a red car got out of his car and confronted the teens. Her friends said the man assaulted her. Police said her friends ran back to the ADAMS Center and said the girl had been left behind. 
   
   RELATED: Road rage suspected in Muslim Va. teen’s death 
   
   Friends and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Phyllis Randal identified the girl as Nabra. She was a sophomore at South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia, and would have been starting her junior year this fall, friends said. 
   
   Our hearts are heavy with grief. I stand with the ADAMS Community. Loudoun, please hold her family close to our hearts. Loudoun, she was us. pic.twitter.com/29cT6xnD7b — Phyllis Randall (@PRandallcares) June 19, 2017 
   
   Fairfax Police began searching at 4 a.m. Sunday. The body was found Sunday around 3 p.m. floating in a pond in the 21500 block of Ridgetop Circle 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. 
   
   Chairwoman Randall said police found a bat near the scene. 
   
   Police are not investigating her murder as a hate crime. They said the “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.” 
   
   Authorities also said their investigation no way indicates the victim was targeted because of her race or religion. 
   
   We are NOT investigating this murder as a hate crime. https://t.co/f6TegmdKMR pic.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. 
   
   A vigil is expected to be held Wednesday evening in the Reston area. More information about the exact time and location will be announced in the coming days. 
   
   Muslim leaders across the country have been sharing this GoFundMe page that has raised more than $20,000 to help support the family. 
   
   Heartbreaking. Mahmoud Hassanen, father of #NabraHassanen, 17, killed on her way to mosque. She was big sis to three younger siblings @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/vcbSg2GS8Z — Peggy Fox (@PeggyTV) June 19, 2017 
   
   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. 
   
   The ADAMS Center Mosque released the following statement: 
   
   On Sunday, June 18th 2017, at approximately 4 a.m., according to Fairfax County Police, a dispute occurred between a group of teens who were walking along Dranesville Road in Sterling and a man driving a car. It appears the man got out of his car and assaulted one of them, a 17-year-old girl. Community members came across the group and directed them to ADAMS Center. Immediately thereafter, the ADAMS’ personnel notified both Loudon County and Fairfax County authorities who immediately began an extensive search to locate the missing girl. The search continued until around 3 p.m. when the body of a female were found in a pond in Sterling. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to confirm the identity of the body and determine the exact cause and manner of death. The joint county investigation has led to an individual being taken into custody as a suspect. Charges are pending further investigation. We thank both Fairfax County Police and Loudoun County Sheriff’s departments for their diligent efforts in investigating and apprehending a suspect. We call on law enforcement to investigate and determine the motive of this crime and prosecute to the full extent of the law. We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event. 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. We would also like to thank our community, government officials and interfaith partners for their prayers and support during these tough times. For further questions, we ask that you please contact the Fairfax County Police Media Relations Bureau, 703-246-2253. Due to the nature of the ongoing investigation we have been advised not to discuss this matter further. 
   
   © 2018 WUSA-TV
target: – The death of a Muslim teenager in Virginia whose body was found in a pond some 12 hours after she and a group of friends got into an altercation with a driver while walking back to a mosque from an IHOP is "NOT" being investigated as a hate crime, per a tweet from Fairfax County police on Monday. No elaboration was given. But that hasn't kept a religious bent out of discussion of and reactions to Nabra Hassanen's killing. As the Washington Post puts it, "the issue was on the minds of many Muslims on Sunday." The latest: A police press release on the arrest of Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, says that as Nabra and her friends were walking "they got into a dispute with a man in a car." Torres allegedly exited his car and assaulted Nabra. "Her friends could not find her and police were called to help." The Washington Post talks to Nabra's mother, who says a detective said her daughter was beaten with a metal bat. "I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness,” she said Sunday night. WUSA9 reports police did recover a bat. "What investigators told the father and the mother, he hit her in the head and put her in the car and he threw her in the water," the Richmond Times-Dispatch quotes a rep for the family as saying. It reports Martinez Torres directed officers to the pond, which it says is near the apartment he lives in. The Post fills in some details on the girls' movements, reporting that during the final 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, Va., holds extra prayers at midnight and 2am. The mosque is one of the largest in the US, and ADAMS' co-chair says it is commonplace for members to have a meal at McDonald’s or IHOP in advance of the day's fast, which runs from sunrise to sunset. Nabra, a rising high school junior, was not particularly religious and did not usually wear Muslim dress, according to her mother, who lent Nabra an abaya to wear to the mosque Saturday night. She tells the Post a detective told her that during the fateful encounter, Nabra tripped over the long garment and fell. Bustle reports that while this may not be a hate crime, the number of anti-Muslim hate groups did spike in 2016 to 101, about triple the number the Southern Poverty Law Center recorded in 2015. Mindy Kaling was one of the celebrities to post about Nabra (in this case, before police specified it was not a hate crime investigation), writing on Facebook, "Nabra Hassanen, I won't forget you and what happened to you. Another innocent Muslim person targeted for their faith. Please read about her if you can." A crowdfunding campaign for Nabra's family has raised more than $178,000 as of this writing.