Mohmoud Hassanen tells Guardian his 17-year-old daughter, Nabra, who was killed on Sunday, that he does not believe authorities’ version of events

Police say the killing of a Muslim teenager near a mosque close to Washington DC is being investigated as a road rage incident.

But the father of Nabra Hassanen rejected detectives’ theory and said he believed his 17-year-old daughter was targeted because she was Muslim.

Muslim girl, 17, killed on way home from Virginia mosque Read more

Nabra was with friends walking back from a McDonald’s in Sterling, Virginia, in the early hours of Sunday when they got into a dispute with a man in a car, according to police. Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, has been charged with her murder and is being held without bail pending a court appearance on 19 July.

Julie Parker, a spokeswoman for Fairfax County police, told reporters that detectives believe a male teenager on a bike began arguing with Torres, who drove his car up a kerb. The group of about 15 teenagers then scattered and ran, but Torres caught up with them in a car park. He allegedly grabbed Nabra and hit her with a baseball bat. He took her in his car to a second location nearby.

Nabra died from blunt force trauma to the upper body. Torres was taken into custody at about 5.15am after an officer recognised his vehicle.

Parker added: “There is nothing at this point to indicate that this tragic case was a hate crime. No evidence has been recovered that showed this was a hate crime. Nothing indicates it was motivated by race or religion.”



If evidence surfaces that does point to a hate crime, she added, “at that point detectives would obviously take the investigation in that direction ... We’re obviously grieving for this family and what they’re going through.”



Lt Bryan Holland said: “There was no indication of any racial slurs or any back and forth other than a verbal argument.”

However, Nabra’s father, Mohmoud Hassanen, rejected that version of events. “I don’t believe this story,” he told the Guardian by phone on Monday afternoon. “I tell the detective the same thing.”

Hassanen, 60, said: “He killed my daughter because she is Muslim. That’s what I believe. That’s what I told him.”

A driver for a limousine company, Egyptian-born Hassanen moved to the US in 1987 and Nabra, born in the US, was the eldest of four daughters. On Saturday, he recalled, she had 13 Muslim friends over at the family flat in Reston, Virginia, to break fast at about 8.30pm. They left at 9.30 or 9.45pm for late night prayers, held during the last 10 days of Ramadan, at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (Adams) mosque in nearby Sterling.

Speaking in sombre tones on Monday morning at his home, Hassanen said: “After everybody had gone, after about three or four minutes, she came back. I think maybe she forgot something. Then she came inside the kitchen. She just kissed me, she said goodbye. It was the last time I saw her.”

He had suggested to Nabra that he would pick her up, Hassanen added, but she said a friend’s father was going to collect the group. Then, at about 3am, police told Hassanen that she was missing. Around 15 children were interviewed at the Adams mosque as witnesses, he continued.

Breathing hard to keep his emotions in check, Hassanen said they gave this version of events: “My daughter fell down. When she fell down, the guy hit her with a baseball stick. He went and drove his car and came back, and picked her up and threw her in a lake a mile from the mosque.”

Despite the police being quick to indicate they are not treating it as a hate crime, Hassanen feels sure that Nabra’s appearance played some part. “He followed the girls, and all of them had head cloths, meaning they are Muslim, and he had a baseball stick.

I told the detective: ‘I want to ask him one question. Why did he do that? Because he doesn’t like Muslims, or what?’ He tells me he has no answer for that. This answer is going to be in the court.”

Asked if he thought his daughter was killed because she was Muslim, Hassanen replied: “I believe so, 100%. In the McDonald’s there’s a lot of kids, a lot of people; why did he run behind this girl especially? For what?

“When I go to court I’m going to look him in the eye: why did you do this to my daughter? Then I’m going to forgive him and leave him to God’s face. The lord is going to judge him. He took my daughter’s life.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nabra Hassanen was killed on Sunday morning in Virginia. Photograph: facebook

On Monday morning Hassanen was gathered with grieving, Arabic-speaking friends in his apartment in the suburb, about seven miles from Washington’s Dulles international airport. He recalled how his daughter loved fashion and music, had volunteered for work helping homeless people.

As scenes from Mecca played on television, he said of his daughter: “She was 17 years old. She had no problem with me or her mum or anything. She’s a very nice girl. She liked to help. She did something good.

“I teach my kids how to be good Muslims, how to feel about the other people. She had Christian friends, she had Spanish friends, she had Muslim friends. I raised my kids just to be nice. We don’t have hate. We don’t teach about hate. We teach to be good to the other people: if it’s Muslim or Jew or Christian or whatever, it’s human.”

The killing has shocked the Muslim community gathering to pray at the Adams mosque, the biggest in northern Virginia, which recently opened a new extension. It advertises services such as food, coat and blanket drives, family fun nights and funeral services.

The number of anti-Muslim bias incidents in the US jumped 57% in 2016 to 2,213, up from 1,409 in 2015, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said in a report last month.

Members of the local Islamic community were divided on the impact of Trump and his policies. Randy Myers, a 44-year-old Muslim, said he believed there was a lot of hate in the US and that Trump was fuelling hostility. “Trump being the president plays a big part because of the things that come out of his mouth,” he said.

Sharon Bulova, chairperson of Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, visited the Adams mosque on Monday and announced the community would hold a vigil in Reston on Wednesday. She said: “In Fairfax County and in northern Virginia we have a very close relationship with our Muslim community and, in particular, the Adams centre is a place where law enforcement comes regularly, not needing to enforce a crime but to be there as a friend.”



Wajid Khan, 46, a former security supervisor originally from Pakistan, cautioned against rushing to political conclusions: “It’s not related to Trump. Give him a chance. Muslims are not afraid: I’ve lived here for 25 years and it’s a peaceful community.”



Additional reporting by Oliver Laughland in New York