STERLING, Va. (AP) – Whether a mourner in a black robe at a mosque or a soccer mom in a T-shirt and shorts at a community vigil, reaction to 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen’s death carried a common refrain: That could have been my daughter.
More than 5,000 people attended Hassanen’s funeral Wednesday in suburban Washington, grinding traffic to a halt and forcing attendees to walk more than a mile to join the overflow crowd at All Dulles Area Muslim Society, one of the nation’s largest mosques. Another crowd of several thousand attended a community vigil Wednesday evening.
Hassanen, 17, died Sunday after police said she was bludgeoned with a baseball bat by a motorist who drove up on about 15 Muslim teenagers as they walked back to ADAMS Center for pre-dawn Ramadan services. Observant Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during the holy month. With the long summer days, Muslims will often eat meals at unusual hours, and the group of teens had been at a McDonald’s before walking back to the mosque.
Police said the driver became enraged after exchanging words with a boy in the group. On Wednesday, Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler said investigators are working to determine whether Hassanen may also have been sexually assaulted and are waiting on the results of forensic tests.
Police have consistently said the incident was a case of road rage, but many activists have said they believe Hassanen was targeted because of her Muslim faith.