From WN.com

Fairfax County police said on Monday that a man who was charged with murder over the death of a Muslim Virginia teen became “enraged” over a traffic argument with one of the girl’s friends near their mosque and hit her with a baseball bat before abducting her, according to The Associated Press.

The killing of Nabra Hassanen, whose body was found in a pond, raised concerns that she was targeted due to the fact that she was Muslim, but police have no reason to believe the killing was a hate crime.

“Nothing indicates that this was motivated by race or by religion. It appears the suspect became so enraged over this traffic argument that it escalated into deadly violence,” Fairfax County police spokeswoman Julie Parker said.

Hassanen, 17, was with a group of 15 teenagers who left their Sterling-area mosque between Ramadan prayers to get food at a nearby McDonald’s, but while they were making their way back between 3 and 4 a.m. on Sunday, the suspect drove up and began to argue with a male teen.

The 22-year-old suspect Darwin Martinez Torres, drove onto the curb and the group scattered, but he caught up with them in a nearby parking lot and got out again with a baseball bat and began chasing the group.

“His anger over that earlier encounter then led to violence when he hit Nabra with a baseball bat,” Parker said, before he abducted her and later abandoned her body in a pond.

An autopsy revealed she died of blunt force trauma to the upper body, Parker said.

An officer stopped a suspicious car on Sunday while they were undertaking a search for Hassanen on Sunday and took Martinez Torres into custody.

Martinez Torres was arraigned on Monday, denied bail pending a July 19 court appearance, where a judge appointed him a public defender.

Immigration authorities also put a detainer on the suspect, saying he was a citizen of El Salvador and could have probable cause to believe he lacks proper permission to be in the U.S.

Earlier in the day police announced they were not investigating the murder as a hate crime, a move that prompted great skepticism from American Muslims.

“Road rage. Indeed. If you think for a minute that her appearance had nothing to do with this crime, you’re lying to yourself,” tweeted attorney Rabia Chaudry, a prominent Muslim activist who lives in the Washington suburbs.

Two boys from the group of teenagers said the witness didn’t do anything to make them think it was a hate crime, even thinking the driver was a friend playing a joke before he drove up on the curb.

They then felt his hostility was genuine and began to run, scattering and not realizing Hassanen was missing until they returned to their mosque and alerted security officials who contacted the police.

The father of the girl, Mohmoud Hassanen Aboras of Reston, said his daughter was a friend to everyone she met but that he was not interested in knowing why his daughter was attacked and if it was considered a hate crime.

“My daughter is dead, and I don’t want anyone to feel what I feel, to lose your 17-year-old daughter … Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hispanic, whatever,” he said, surrounded by more than a dozen friends and family in his apartment.

–WN.com, Maureen Foody

For more on this story go to; https://article.wn.com/view/2017/06/20/Police_Say_Road_Rage_Not_Hate_Crime_Behind_Murder_of_Virgini/