FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — The Latest on the killing of a teenage girl as she and her friends returned to a mosque in Virginia (all times local):
1:30 p.m.
Thousands of mourners have walked more than a mile after traffic overflowed in northern Virginia, where people have gathered at a mosque to pay respects to a 17-year-old girl Muslim girl who was fatally beaten this weekend.
Rizwan Jaka, spokesman for the ADAMS Center in Sterling, said he expected anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 people to attend the funeral services for Nabra Hassanen.
Hassanen was killed early Sunday morning as she too walked with a group of friends for more than a mile, returning from a pre-dawn meal to Ramadan prayers.
Police have charged 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling with murder, which they said appeared to be motivated by road rage.
Lamia Sarver of McLean does not usually attend the ADAMS mosque, but said she wants to support the Hassanen family. She said the tragedy hits home because she has a daughter Nabra’s age.
___
12:30 p.m.
Police in Virginia are continuing to investigate Sunday’s fatal attack on a teenage Muslim girl.
Fairfax Police say Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. met personally with Imam Mohamed Magid and other leaders of the girl’s mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, and assured them that his department “will continue to diligently investigate the case.”
The funeral of 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen is being held Wednesday afternoon at the mosque. Chief Roessler and Imam Magid will be at Lake Anne Plaza in Reston to speak with the community before a public vigil at 6:30 p.m.
Police have said her beating death appears to be a case of road rage, but many outside observers are skeptical, especially Muslims who say the case looks much like a hate crime.
Police said 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres beat her with a baseball bat after chasing a group of teenagers he encountered in the road on Sunday.
Police say the girl was assaulted a second time before her body was dumped in a pond in Loudon County, but the Fairfax detectives continue to take the lead in the case.
___
4:15 a.m.
Virginia detectives say the beating death of a teenage Muslim girl appears to have been a case of road rage, but the case has left doubt among Islamic leaders who say it looks too much like a hate crime.
Police say 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen was bludgeoned with a baseball bat early Sunday by a motorist who drove up to about 15 Muslim teenagers as they walked or bicycled along a road.
A funeral service is planned for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday for Hassanen at her northern Virginia mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society. A vigil also is planned for Wednesday in Hassanen’s hometown of Reston, Virginia.
Twenty-two-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres is being held without bail on a murder charge.
The post The Latest: Mourners pack funeral for slain Muslim teen appeared first on WTOP.
