(Update: Killing of a Muslim teenager in Virginia is being investigated as a road-rage incident, police say) 
 
 The death of a Virginia teenager who police say was assaulted and then disappeared after leaving a mosque in the Sterling area isn't being investigated as a hate crime, authorities said Monday. 
 
 On Sunday, police found the girl’s remains and a 22-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with the case. 
 
 The mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, and relatives identified the girl as 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston. 
 
 Fairfax County police identified the man charged with murder in her death as Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling. On Monday, they did not release any explanation as to why they weren’t investigating the murder as a hate crime. 
 
 Relatives identified the slain teen as Nabra Hassanen, 17, right, of Reston, seen in a social media post with a filter. (All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center) 
 
 According to accounts from police and a mosque official, a group of four or five teens were walking back from breakfast at IHOP early Sunday when they were confronted by a motorist. All but one of the teens ran to the mosque, where the group reported that the girl had been left behind, according to Deputy Aleksandra Kowalski, a spokeswoman for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. 
 
 “Immediately thereafter, the ADAMS’ personnel notified both Loudoun County and Fairfax County authorities who immediately began an extensive search to locate the missing girl,” the mosque said in a statement. 
 
 Loudoun and Fairfax police jointly conducted an hours-long search around Dranesville Road and Woodson Drive in Herndon, which is in Fairfax. Remains thought to be the girl’s were found about 3 p.m. Sunday in a pond in the 21500 block of Ridgetop Circle in Sterling. During the search, an officer spotted a motorist driving suspiciously in the area and arrested Torres, police said. 
 
 Police said they collected several articles of evidence but declined to provide further details. 
 
 The girl’s mother said detectives told her that Nabra was struck with a metal bat. 
 
 “I can’t think of a worse instance to occur than the loss of a 17-year-old on Father’s Day, as the father of a 17-year-old myself,” Loudoun County Sheriff Michael L. Chapman said. 
 
 Detectives think the remains are those of the girl, but the chief medical examiner’s office will confirm the identity and manner of death, Fairfax police spokeswoman Tawny Wright said. 
 
 Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, of Sterling, has been charged in the teen’s death. (Fairfax County Police) 
 
 Shoyeb Hassan, the co-chair of ADAMS, said that during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the mosque has extra prayers at midnight and 2 a.m., and members frequently go to McDonald’s or the 24-hour IHOP to eat before they start their fast at sunrise, as Nabra and her friends were doing. 
 
 The killing rattled a Muslim community in the midst of celebrating Ramadan, a month of religious observance in which adherents fast from dawn to sunset for about a month. The period culminates in the feast-like celebration Eid al-Fitr, which is expected to fall next weekend. 
 
 “We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event,” Rizwan Jaka, chairman of ADAMS, said in a statement. “It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth.” 
 
 ADAMS is Northern Virginia’s largest mosque and, with 11 chapters around the District and Northern Virginia, is among the nation’s most well-known congregations. According to ADAMS’s website, the Sterling location is 25,000 square feet and can accommodate more than 700 people. It includes a youth weekend school, a gymnasium and multipurpose hall, the site says. 
 
 Arsalan Iftikhar, an international human rights lawyer and commentator, said that he and his wife were at the mosque for evening prayers, which ended about 12:30 a.m. Sunday. As they were pulling out of the parking lot, he said, he saw a group of teenagers congregating and talking loudly about going out to eat. The girls, he said, were wearing the abaya, a full-length dress many Muslim women wear. 
 
 [Van strikes crowd near mosque in London; one person is arrested] 
 
 Police said Monday they aren’t investigating the death as a hate crime, but the issue was on the minds of many Muslims on Sunday. 
 
 Last month, two men on a Portland train were stabbed and killed after they intervened to protect two girls who were being harassed with anti-Muslim threats, according to authorities. 
 
 Sunday night, a van struck a crowd of pedestrians, including worshipers leaving a pair of mosques in London. Witnesses said the pedestrians were struck as they departed late-night prayers. 
 
 The ADAMS Center has a paid armed security guard at the Sterling site, according to Iftikhar. He said many mosques have increased security since six Muslim worshipers were killed at a mosque in Quebec earlier this year. 
 
 [‘Brave and selfless’ Oregon stabbing victims hailed as heroes for standing up to racist rants 
 
 Nabra’s slaying sent a chill through the community when news spread Sunday. 
 
 “People are petrified, especially people who have young Muslim daughters,” Iftikhar said. 
 
 Virginia officials condemned the killing Sunday night and expressed condolences to Nabra’s family. 
 
 Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said she visited ADAMS Sunday and met with leadership and law enforcement officials. 
 
 “We are heartbroken and horrified by the news of the brutal murder of a beautiful 17-year old girl,” Comstock said in a statement. 
 
 The congresswoman represents Virginia’s 10th District, where the mosque is located. “We know there is no greater pain for any parent and Chip and I extend our prayers to her family and loved ones at this difficult time and the entire ADAMS Center community,” she said. “We commend the Fairfax County Police Department and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office for their diligent work in apprehending the perpetrator. This case should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” 
 
 Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said he and his wife, Pam, were “deeply disturbed” by the assault and killing. 
 
 “There is absolutely no place for this kind of violence in our Commonwealth,” Northam said in a statement. “Every Virginian should feel safe and welcome in our communities, and no parent should ever have to experience such a heartbreaking tragedy. As the police investigation continues, I urge all Virginians to keep Nabra’s friends and family in their hearts.” 
 
 Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) echoed Northam, urging Virginians to show compassion and kindness. 
 
 “The ADAMS Center has always welcomed me and so many in Northern Virginia like family,” Herring said. “This unspeakable attack feels like an assault on our entire community. Words fail at a time like this, so we’ll all have to do the best we can to surround them with the love and support they’ve always shown each of us.” 
 
 On a crowdfunding page to support Nabra’s family, donations surged Sunday night, jumping from $10,000 to nearly $18,000 in less than an hour. Shortly before 10 p.m., the fundraising page had met its $25,000 goal. 
 
 In a neighborhood full of Muslim immigrant families, the Hassanens’ modest Reston apartment was the one overflowing with friends and laughter most days, friends said Sunday. 
 
 “It’s a family where if you’re feeling down and you need to laugh, this is where you go,” said Samar Ali, 26, who grew up in the Hassanens’ apartment complex. 
 
 On Sunday night, that apartment normally filled with laughter was crammed with more than 30 women in traditional Muslim garb, sobbing and comforting one another. At the center of the crowded, dimly lit living room was Nabra’s mother, Sawsan Gazzar. 
 
 “Please pray for me, please pray for me,” Gazzar sobbed in Arabic. Her phone rang constantly. To her brother and sister in her native Egypt, she said, “Pray for me that I can handle this . . . I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness.” 
 
 The night before, Gazzar had cooked a feast for Nabra, the oldest of her four daughters, who wanted to host a big iftar break-the-fast dinner for all her friends from ADAMS and South Lakes High School, where she just finished 10th grade. 
 
 The iftar was packed — Nabra was always popular and sociable. And when it ended, a friend’s mom drove some of the teens to ADAMS for the midnight prayers that mark the last 10 days of Ramadan. Family members said she frequented the mosque during Ramadan. 
 
 And during the holy month, the mosque was filled with teens like her. 
 
 Gazzar said she thought Nabra and her friends would eat at the mosque after the prayers, and she would have forbidden her from walking to IHOP in the middle of the night. But she also wasn’t surprised that the girl went out; she and other teens had done it safely last year. 
 
 Other mothers in the apartment Sunday night echoed the same thought repeatedly — they and their children had always felt safe taking the sidewalk path to IHOP or McDonald’s for a fun meal on those final Ramadan nights. 
 
 Gazzar loaned her daughter an abaya to wear to the mosque Saturday night, since Nabra didn’t typically wear traditional Muslim clothes. She heard from a detective that when the man in the car started shouting at the teens, Nabra tripped over the long garment and fell to the ground, just before she was struck. 
 
 “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?” 
 
 Nabra was a diligent student, so much so that although she was extremely proud to get her first job ever at a McDonald’s, she quit when her manager didn’t understand that studying for a school exam took priority over a work shift. Family members were quick to note her interest in fashion and makeup, and her recently acquired nose ring. 
 
 All four Hassanen girls were born in the United States — the younger ones are 11, 10 and 3. Ali described Nabra as a “daddy’s girl” who was close with her father, a bus-and-limo driver. Her father spent Sunday at the mosque, Ali said, beside himself with worry all day. 
 
 Gazzar’s phone rang yet again, and this time she didn’t answer. She turned instead to the hundreds of photos stored on it, scrolling through them until she landed on one of Nabra visiting her parents’ homeland in Egypt, laughing as she embraced two of the teen’s little sisters. 
 
 “They’d all be laughing. They used to be really happy.” 
 
 She gazed into the girls’ eyes, and cried harder. 
 
 Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated the number of Muslim girls who were being harassed in Portland. One of the two girls identifies as Muslim.The story has also been updated to clarify earlier information. ||||| Police in Fairfax, Virginia, found the body of a 17-year-old Muslim girl who was reported missing early Sunday after leaving a mosque with a group of friends. 
 
 Shortly after finding her remains Sunday afternoon, officers arrested 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres and charged him with murder in connection to the case. Police said Monday evening that "the autopsy results show Nabra suffered from blunt force trauma to the upper body after a road rage incident." 
 
 
 
 Mosque officials said Hassanen and her friends were coming back from eating during a break from Ramadan prayers when a car pulled up and a man with a baseball bat jumped out and started swinging at the group of girls. 
 
 The teens were walking on Dranesville Road toward the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center in Sterling, Virginia, at around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday after grabbing breakfast at a nearby McDonald's before beginning their fast at sunrise for Ramadan, police and mosque officials said. 
 
 Torres was at the McDonald's at the same time Yufra Abdelmuid, a family friend of Hassanen's and who knows the other teens in the group, told BuzzFeed News on Monday. 
 
 The 21-year-old said Hassanen is close with her little sister and described the North Virginian Nubian community as "family." She has been helping Hassanen's father plan the funeral, which will be this week. 
 
 After the group finished, they started walking back and that's when a motorist confronted them and they got into an altercation, Deputy Aleksandra Kowalski, a spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s office, told BuzzFeed News. Police believed that Torres got out of his car and assaulted Hassanen. "Her friends could not find her and police were called to help," Fairfax County police said. 
 
 
 
 Abdelmuid said she was with the distraught teens, whose ages range from 13-16, when they were giving their statements to police detailing how Hassanen got separated during the attack. 
 
 "They told me that he was at the McDonald's at the same time and he followed them in his car," said Abdelmuid. "He then got into an argument with them and they started running into the Bowl America parking lot nearby and he got out of his car with a bat and chased them and hit her over the head." 
 
 The girls were all wearing traditional Muslim clothing called abayas and "definitely stood out," she added. 
 
 
 
 The manager at that McDonald's located in Towncenter Plaza told BuzzFeed News she could not comment on whether Torres was there. 
 
 While it was evident that the teens were Muslim, police on Monday emphasized that there is nothing to indicate at this point that the murder was a hate crime. 
 
 "No evidence has been uncovered that shows this murder was motivated by race or religion," said Julie Parker, the public affairs director for Fairfax County Police. 
 
 
 
 "If during the course of this ongoing criminal investigation, information or evidence later surfaces that would indicate this was hate-motivated, detectives would certainly ensure appropriate charges are filed," police said in a statement. 
 
 
 
 Nabra’s mother, Sawsan Gazzar, told thw Washington Post, "I think it had to do with the way she was dressed and the fact that she’s Muslim." 
 
 
 
 "Why would you kill a kid? What did my daughter do to deserve this?" she asked. 
 
 According to accounts from police and mosque officials, all of the teens except for one fled the scene. Members from the community found the group and directed them to the ADAMS Center, which immediately notified officials at around 4 a.m., Rizwan Jaka, a board member at ADAMS, said in a statement. 
 
 
 
 "They all dispersed after the incident and when they met back up they realized she was missing," Kowalski said. 
 
 "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," the center's statement said. 
 
 After starting their search at 4 a.m. on Sunday, officers found her remains in a pond in Sterling around 3 p.m. ||||| In this Tuesday, June 20, 2017 photo, Mohmoud Hassanen Aboras, left, whose daughter Nabra Hassanen was killed, listens as Imam Mohamed Magid, center, of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, talks about... (Associated Press) 
 
 STERLING, Va. (AP) — About 5,000 mourners attended Wednesday's funeral of a Muslim girl whose beating death, blamed by police on a motorist's road rage, has some people in her community fearing for their safety. 
 
 Some wearing Islamic robes, others in street clothes, they left their cars as traffic overflowed and walked more than a mile to reach her mosque. 
 
 Nabra Hassanen, 17, was remembered as a shining example of kindness and openness during the services. 
 
 "There is nothing like losing a child, especially in the way that we lost Nabra," said Imam Mohamed Magid, the religious leader of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society. He stood before Hassanen's closed coffin, covered by a black shroud decorated with quotes from the Quran. 
 
 Police said 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. Police said the driver became enraged after exchanging words with a boy in the group. A Hassanen family spokesman said the girls in the group were wearing Muslim headscarves and robes. 
 
 Magid said he sought to comfort the victim's mother by telling her that a person who dies in such a manner will enter paradise with no questions asked. 
 
 He acknowledged that the slaying has people grieving and fearful, but he praised the many people who turned out "in a fever" to search for the teen before police discovered her body Sunday afternoon. 
 
 After the teen's funeral and burial, Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. spoke with The Associated Press about the community's concerns. 
 
 Roessler said police have "absolutely no evidence" that her killing was motivated by hate, but he acknowledged that many people still strongly feel that it must have been a hate crime. Virginia law defines these, in part, as crimes that try to intimidate or instill fear in people targeted for their race or religion. 
 
 "That's the myth, isn't it?" the chief said. 
 
 He urged anyone with evidence that Hassanen's killing was motivated by hate to come forward, and "if evidence develops of a hate crime, I promise we will charge to the highest levels." 
 
 Roessler also said police are waiting on the results of forensic tests on Hassanen's body, which was pulled from a pond on Sunday, in an attempt to determine whether she was sexually assaulted. 
 
 "We're doing a thorough investigation and that's something of concern to us," he said. 
 
 At her funeral Wednesday, an overflow area itself overflowed with people who came in solidarity. The crowd overwhelmed suburban traffic, and cars jammed into neighborhood streets more than a mile away to park. 
 
 Most mourners were Muslim, but Christians and Jews attended as well. The ADAMS Center, one of the largest mosques in the country, has a long history of interfaith outreach and activism, and ADAMS board chair Rizwan Jaka said there has been "just a tremendous outpouring of support" from people of all faiths. 
 
 Lamia Sarver of McLean said the tragedy hits home because she has a daughter Nabra's age. She's warned her not to attend late-night Ramadan prayers and services with friends, so she won't be a target. 
 
 "'Pray at home,' I tell her," she said. 
 
 Others expressed similar sentiments. 
 
 "I have two daughters. He has two sisters," said Zahid Hassan of Fairfax, who attended services with his son Yasin, and choked back tears as he spoke. "It could have been anybody." 
 
 In the evening, a crowd of several thousand gathered for a vigil organized by the Muslim Student Association at Hassanen's high school. 
 
 Magid noted the diversity of the crowd and expressed gratitude "to see we are part of the larger community to stand against bigotry, stand against hate." 
 
 Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who counted Hassanen among his constituents, was one of many political figures who attended. He said the teen's death has prompted the entire community to rally and that the Muslim community is not alone in its grief. 
 
 Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, is currently being held on a second-degree murder charge. Police said he beat her with a baseball bat early Sunday, drove off with her in his car and assaulted her again — they haven't said how — before dumping her body in a pond near her home. His public defender's office has declined to comment. 
 
 Lena Masri, national litigation director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement that CAIR is representing Hassanen's family and "will monitor the development of the investigation to ensure a thorough examination of any possible bias aspects of the case." 
 
 ____ 
 
 Associated Press reporters Alanna Durkin Richer and Sarah Rankin contributed to this report from Richmond.
– The death of a Muslim teenager in Virginia whose body was found in a pond some 12 hours after she and a group of friends got into an altercation with a driver while walking back to a mosque from an IHOP is "NOT" being investigated as a hate crime, per a tweet from Fairfax County police on Monday. No elaboration was given. But that hasn't kept a religious bent out of discussion of and reactions to Nabra Hassanen's killing. As the Washington Post puts it, "the issue was on the minds of many Muslims on Sunday." The latest: A police press release on the arrest of Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, says that as Nabra and her friends were walking "they got into a dispute with a man in a car." Torres allegedly exited his car and assaulted Nabra. "Her friends could not find her and police were called to help." The Washington Post talks to Nabra's mother, who says a detective said her daughter was beaten with a metal bat. "I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness,” she said Sunday night. WUSA9 reports police did recover a bat. "What investigators told the father and the mother, he hit her in the head and put her in the car and he threw her in the water," the Richmond Times-Dispatch quotes a rep for the family as saying. It reports Martinez Torres directed officers to the pond, which it says is near the apartment he lives in. The Post fills in some details on the girls' movements, reporting that during the final 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, Va., holds extra prayers at midnight and 2am. The mosque is one of the largest in the US, and ADAMS' co-chair says it is commonplace for members to have a meal at McDonald’s or IHOP in advance of the day's fast, which runs from sunrise to sunset. Nabra, a rising high school junior, was not particularly religious and did not usually wear Muslim dress, according to her mother, who lent Nabra an abaya to wear to the mosque Saturday night. She tells the Post a detective told her that during the fateful encounter, Nabra tripped over the long garment and fell. Bustle reports that while this may not be a hate crime, the number of anti-Muslim hate groups did spike in 2016 to 101, about triple the number the Southern Poverty Law Center recorded in 2015. Mindy Kaling was one of the celebrities to post about Nabra (in this case, before police specified it was not a hate crime investigation), writing on Facebook, "Nabra Hassanen, I won't forget you and what happened to you. Another innocent Muslim person targeted for their faith. Please read about her if you can." A crowdfunding campaign for Nabra's family has raised more than $178,000 as of this writing.