Police: Murder of Muslim girl not a hate crime
FAIRFAX, Va. — A 22-year-old Virginia man was held on a murder charge Monday in the slaying of a teenage Muslim girl who was attacked during a breakfast break from an allnight prayer session at her mosque.
Police do not believe the incident is a hate crime.
Darwin Martinez Torres of Sterling was arraigned in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and ordered held without bail pending a July 19 court appearance.
According to statements from police and the mosque, the girl 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.
According to local media in Washington, the teen fell as the girls ran, and only later did they realize that she was not among them.
During an intense search for the girl, an officer stopped a car being driven suspiciously on Sunday and the driver, later identified as Martinez Torres was arrested, police said.
Local media reported that Martinez Torres was questioned near the scene of the attack, and led officers several miles away to a retention pond near his apartment complex where a female body, believed to be the girl’s, was found. at about 3 p.m. Sunday. Without elaborating, the Fairfax County Police Department tweeted Monday that “We are NOT investigating this murder as a hate crime.”