On Monday, Fairfax County police posted a message on Twitter saying they were not investigating the case as a hate crime.
Regardless of the motive, the killing reverberated throughout the Muslim community and beyond.
On Sunday, the body of Nabra Hassanen, a 17-year-old Muslim teen, was found in a pond in Fairfax County.
According to statements from police and the mosque, Hassanen and her friends were walking back to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque from a McDonald's in the Sterling area between 3 and 4 a.m. Sunday when a man drove up and some kind of altercation ensued. He has been charged with her murder and is now being held without bail pending a court appearance on 19 July.
Police arrested Torres after a search and later obtained a murder warrant charging him with her death. Torres was expected to appear in court this morning, police said. The statement follows a previous one that says the department uncovered what detectives believed to be Hassanen's remains in an area pond nearly 12 hours after she was reported missing early yesterday morning. The driver, Martinez Torres, was taken into custody, police said.
Mohmoud Hassanen, Nabra's father, told the Guardian that he does not believe the police account and still suspects that his daughter was targeted because of her religion. Speaking to relatives over the phone, Gazzar said, "Pray for me that I can handle this".
The lack of a hate crime investigation provoked deep skepticism among some American Muslims.
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A 22-year-old illegal immigrant who beat a 17-year-old Muslim girl to death has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Anonymous family members of Torres' told The Post that he originally hails from El Salvador.
According to police, Nabra had finished a post-service breakfast at IHOP and was walking back with friends when she got into a dispute with a man in a auto early Sunday. The girl 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.
A police spokeswoman told reporters the attack followed some sort of dispute between the man and the girls, and authorities had not ruled out hate as a motivation for the attack.
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.
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.
He is now in jail without bond. Hassanen's mother claims she was told by police that her daughter was struck by a metal baseball bat.
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