Thousands of mourners turned out to pay their respects to a Muslim girl bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat by an enraged motorist in Sterling, West Virginia, United States.
Police said Nabra Hassanen, 17, was murdered last weekend after she left her mosque in the early hours of Sunday morning with 15 other teenagers. The group became embroiled in an altercation with a motorist who was driving by in his car. He became enraged with the teenagers and exited the vehicle, attacking the group with a baseball bat. The teens fled, while Hassanen reportedly tripped. She was caught by the assailant and later killed.
Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, has been detained and charged with second-degree murder. It is believed he caught the victim, drove off with her in his car and assaulted her again – before dumping her body in a pond near her home. Police have not revealed further details surrounding the cause of death, or if she was sexually assaulted, they are awaiting forensic tests.
All the girls in the group were wearing hijab and abayas, and many in the Muslim community believe they were targeted because “they are Muslim”.
However, Fairfax County Police Public Information Officer Tawny Wright said the police have “absolutely no evidence” that her killing was motivated by hate and believe at this stage “it is rage”.
The police acknowledge that many still feel that the attack was a hate crime – their conclusion angered many American Muslims who see attacks against Muslims become increasingly worse in the wake of anti-Muslim rhetoric fuelled by the presidential election campaign.
Virginia law defines hate crimes in part as those that target individuals for race or religion, spurred to instil fear or intimidate them.
At the funeral at one of the largest mosques in the country, The All Dulles Area Muslim Society Centre, Imam Mohammed Majid stood over her closed coffin covered in a black shroud decorated with emblems from the Quran and said, “There is nothing like losing a child, especially in the way that we lost Nabra.”
Majid continued to comfort the victim’s mother by telling her that a person who dies under such circumstances is guaranteed a place in paradise. He praised the local community for turning out “in a fever” to help police search for the missing teenager before her body was discovered on Sunday afternoon.
The mourners, a majority of them Muslims, included some Christians and Jews. People spilled into the streets surrounding the mosque. Vehicles of mourners overwhelmed the streets and they parked over a mile away from the mosque and walked to the service. “It’s important for us to be here to show our solidarity,” said Alexi Young.
Nabra Hassanen was described at the service by those who knew her as a shining example of kindness and openness. Hassanen was the eldest of three, and was “never down on anyone”, recalled Yufra Abdelmuidid, a family friend.
The 17-year-old attended the ADAMS youth camp every spring and volunteered at Dulles Airport in DC at the start of President Trump’s Muslim travel ban.
Rizwan Jaka, a board member at the ADAMS centre, said in a statement about the impact on the community, “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.”
Hundreds gathered earlier in the week at Dupont Circle, Washington DC, for a memorial service to lay posters and flowers for the slain girl. A man was arrested for vandalism at the memorial service after setting fire to several items from the park. Police said he did not appear to be intentionally targeting items from Hassanen’s memorial.
Published in Daily Times, June 23rd, 2017.
