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Killing
of Nabra Hassanen
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Location
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Sterling, Virginia, United States
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Date
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June
18, 2017
3 a.m. – 4 a.m. (UTC−04:00) |
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Attack type
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Weapons
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Deaths
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1
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Victim
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Nabra
Hassanen
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Suspected perpetrator
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Darwin
Martinez Torres
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Motive
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Charges
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On June 18, 2017, Nabra
Hassanen, a 17-year-old American
Muslim girl,
was assaulted and killed in an act of road rage. The preliminary hearing for
Hassanen's suspected murderer, an undocumented immigrant
from El
Salvador, is scheduled on October 13, 2017.
INTERNET
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Nabra_Hassanen
Events
Nabra Hassanen was a sophomore at South Lakes High School in Reston,
Virginia, where she would soon be starting her junior year in Fall 2017. On
June 18, 2017 it was the holy month of Ramadan, and
Hassanen was with 15 teenage friends near the All Dulles Area Muslim Society
(ADAMS) Center Mosque. As soon as they got some food from a McDonald's nearby,
Hassanen and her friends made their way back to the mosque between 3 a.m. and 4
a.m and came into "a dispute with a man driving a red car", and the
man was later identified as Darwin Martinez Torres. Hassanen's group of friends
scattered as the man drove onto a curb. He then followed them to a parking lot,
got out of the car and chased them. When the man managed to reach Hassanen, he
hit her with a baseball bat and put her in the car. As Hassanen's friends ran
back to the mosque quickly, the man "drove off with her in his car",
took her to a nearby location, and assaulted her again (details of the second
assault were not revealed). After Hassanen died of "blunt force trauma to
her upper body", the man dumped her in a pond near her home.
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Investigation
At 4 a.m. of
the same day, Fairfax County police started searching for the
girl, whose body was found floating in a pond around 3 p.m. The police then
noticed a suspicious car in the vicinity and arrested the driver, Darwin
Martinez Torres who was later charged with second-degree murder.
The day after
the killing, the police stated on Twitter that
"they are not investigating the attack as a hate crime". The County
police spokeswoman said during a news conference that "it appears that the
suspect became so enraged over this traffic argument that it escalated into
deadly violence". Since the police believed the killing did not seem to be
related by either race or religion, it was considered a road rage
incident, rather than a hate crime-motivated offence. Fairfax County police
chief Edwin Roessler Jr also told the media that they had "absolutely no
evidence" showing the killing of Hassanen was caused by hate crime.
At the same
time, the police are still investigating whether Hassanen was sexually
assaulted by her abductor before she was killed.
Reports
released on June 27 showed Torres had punched, choked, and sexually assaulted
another woman a week prior to Hassanen's death.
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The photo was found on
the official blog of Fairfax County Police illustrating the man named Darwin
Martinez Torres who was arrested for murdering a 17-year-old girl in Virginia,
U.S.
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Suspect
Darwin Martinez Torres, aged 22, is an undocumented immigrant to the
United States from El Salvador who worked in construction. The U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement had no previous encounters with Torres prior to Hassanen's
killing.
Reaction
The ADAMS Center Mosque told the public in a
statement that the community was devastated by the killing, saying "it is
a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth." On the
Internet, some people expressed their outrage by criticizing the decision by
police not to look into the killing as a hate crime. Isabella Burton of Vox
wrote: "Hassanen has become another example of an innocent victim of
Islamophobia."
Around 5,000 mourners attended Hassanen's funeral
on June 21 and caused traffic jam. While the majority of the attendees were
Muslims, Christians and Jews were also seen. Hassanen's father, Mohmoud
Hassanen Aboras, believed his daughter was killed because of her identity as a
Muslim – when Hassanen was abducted, she was dressed in a Muslim robe known as abaya. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman of the Council on American–Islamic Relations,
said "there is a strong possibility the crime wouldn't have happened if
the teenagers weren’t Muslim". A lawyer with CAIR said "Muslim
Americans are particularly fearful now."
Aftermath
On June 20, when citizens of Washington
D.C. gathered at the city's park Dupont
Circle commemorating Hassanen's death, a 24-year-old man attempted to set
fire to a fountain where the memorial took place and was arrested for vandalism.
A sergeant later said there was no permanent damage found on the fountain and
the police were not sure why the man was around.
Nabra Hassanen's Accused Killer Could Get Death Penalty: Report
Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, is accused of beating 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen to death last Sunday.
By
- Updated June 23, 2017 5:23 pm ET
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Darwin Martinez Torres
(left) is suspected of murdering Nabra Hassanen (right).
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.farrahgray.com/tag/drfarrahgray/page/169/]
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RESTON, VA — If an autopsy report
currently underway on the body of 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen shows that she was
sexually assaulted before her
murder on Sunday, her accused killer could get the death penalty, according
to a report.
The murder of Hassanen, a Muslim
girl who was walking near her mosque with friends when she got into an argument
with a man in the car, touched off nationwide fury over what appeared to be a
hate crime. However, Fairfax County Police said that 22-year-old Darwin
Martinez Torres killed her in a fit of road rage — not out of anti-Muslim hate
— that developed as he confronted teens that were walking and biking in the
road.
WUSA9 reports that if an autopsy shows that Hassanen was
sexually assaulted, prosecutors could opt to add capital murder to the charges,
which could include a death sentence if convicted.
Police believe Martinez Torres
chased Hassanen's friends in his car and then assaulted Hassanen. He then
allegedly pulled her into his car, took her away from the scene and assaulted
her again before dumping her body in a pond in nearby Sterling.
But it's the possibility of a
sexual assault before her fatal wounds that could change everything about the
case.
"We have to await forensic
examination results and the report from autopsy from the medical examiner to
confirm whether or not that took place," Fairfax County Police Chief Ed
Roessler said, according to WUSA9.
Martinez Torres has a court date
set for July 19.
Vigils were held across the
country to honor Hassanen's life, including one
at Lake Anne Plaza in Reston that drew thousands of people.
Image via Fairfax County Police
Department
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Darwin
Martinez Torres is locked up for the violent attack on the girl whose death
raised fears of a hate crime. ICE said he entered the U.S. illegally.
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OTHER LINKS:
Before Allegedly Killing Muslim, Illegal
Immigrant Was Accused Of Sexual Assault In Front Of A Child
Muslim Teenager Beaten To Death By
Foreign National, Darwin Martinez Torres, And Dumped In Pond
He 'beat her to death with a metal
baseball bat after he kidnapped her as she left a mosque'
Man sets fire to memorial for Muslim
girl, 17, who was 'beaten to death by a 22-year-old illegal immigrant with a
baseball bat in road rage attack
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4626784/Man-sets-fire-memorial-Muslim-girl-beaten-death.html
Sex assault could elevate Nabra Hassanen
case to death penalty
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