Nabra Hassanen's Parents Still Think Anti-Muslim Hate May Have Caused Daughter's Death

RESTON, VA — Fairfax County Police spent most of Monday trying to tamp down rumors that Nabra Hassanen, the 17-year-old Muslim girl from Reston found murdered and dumped in a pond Sunday, was killed for her faith. But her family has pushed back against the assertion that road rage was the motivating factor in recent interviews.

The killing of Hassanen sparked nationwide outrage over what initially appeared to be a potentially hate-motivated slaying of a Muslim girl as she walked with friends near her mosque. Fairfax County Police have been hammered on social media for first saying they were not investigating the incident as a hate crime and then later saying that El Salvadorian immigrant Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, had become enraged after getting into an argument with the group in the roadway and was not targeting Hassanen because of her Muslim attire.

In an interview with WTOP, Mahmoud Hassanen of Reston, the girl's father, questioned why Martinez Torres would have responded the way he did if it was merely a case of road rage.

"Why he do that? Why he take my daughter life? We don’t know him, he don’t know us," he said. "I want to stop the hating — hating for any reason. ... I lose my daughter. My daughter, she’s gone. She’s not coming back. I don’t want this happening to the other families."

The girl's mother, Sawsan Gazzar, told the Washington Post that she believed her daughter's murder was motivated by hatred of their religion.

"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?"

But police think otherwise. Some news reports suggest that some of the teens in Hassanen's group may have been antagonizing Martinez Torres since seeing him at McDonald's that morning. Torres may have simply lost his temper and gone after Hassanen because she was the one he could reach before the other teens scattered, the reports suggest.

The Muslim community remains largely skeptical of this version or at least that road rage was the only reason for the assault.

Rabia Chaudry, a local Muslim lawyer, encapsulated the views of many other area Muslims when she wrote on Twitter: "Road rage. Indeed. If you think for a minute that her appearance had nothing to do with this crime, you're lying to yourself."

While police said they were not investigating it as a hate crime, they initially did not elaborate. That drew criticism from some area residents, and Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh told WTOP that although police may have been trying to alleviate worried residents, it's too early to say what the motivation was behind the fatal assault.

“I always try to wait until all the evidence is in,” Morrogh told the news station. “It’s still early in the investigation — who knows what will come in.”

Martinez Torres, who faces a charge of murder, has a court date set for July 19. He was denied bail at a recent hearing.

Image of Hassanen's locker at South Lakes High School courtesy Kahlil Dover