Nabra Hassanen, 17, was killed in an alleged road rage incident by Darwin Martinez Torres
Courtroom deputies had to restrain the parents of a Muslim girl who was killed on her way to a mosque in Virginia.
When the suspect appeared before a judge on Friday, the father of Nabra Hassanen had to be held back as he shouted: ‘You killed my daughter.’
Her mother, Sawsan Gazzar, threw a shoe at him, shouting: ‘I’ll kill you!’
The outbursts briefly delayed proceedings for Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, who later waived his right to a preliminary hearing.
The case will now go to a grand jury to consider an indictment.
The family’s supporters packed the room inside Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
After the hearing ended, about 200 people demonstrated outside under the U.S. flag, calling for ‘Justice for Nabra’.
Mohmoud Hassanen, Nabra’s father, yelled at Martinez Torres in court: ‘You killed my daughter!’ Hassanen previously said he believed Martinez Torres had committed a hate crime
Police say the motive of Martinez Torres (pictured) was road rage. He is charged with second-degree murder. He is a citizen of El Salvador
Martinez Torres is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of the 17-year-old, who was bludgeoned with a baseball bat as she returned to her mosque with friends for pre-dawn Ramadan services on June 18 in Sterling, Virginia.
When the judge called the case on Friday, Hassanen’s parents stood up and moved toward Martinez Torres.
Hassanen’s mother, Sawsan Gazzar, threw a shoe in the suspect’s direction and shouted at him, prompting the judge to clear the courtroom.
Although the circumstances of the girl’s death led many to speculate about a possible hate crime, police have said the slaying is a case of road rage that began when Martinez Torres was driving and encountered Hassanen’s friends walking in the street.
Mohmoud Hassanen, the father, previously told the Guardian: ‘He killed my daughter because she is Muslim. That’s what I believe.’
Martinez Torres at first got into a dispute with a teenage boy on a bike, police said. He then got out of the car and started chasing the group of teens with a baseball bat before he assaulted Nabra, according to police who later found her body in a Sterling pond about 25 miles outside of Washington DC.
Pictured is the Sterling, Virginia pond in which Nabra’s body was found
Martinez Torres, a citizen of El Salvador, was ‘so enraged over the traffic dispute that it escalated into deadly violence,’ police said.
Nabra and a group of about 15 friends were dressed in abayas, or robe-like dresses worn by some Muslim women, when they left the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, where overnight prayer services were being held during Ramadan.
Nabra didn’t usually opt for traditional Muslim clothes, but her mother Sawsan Gazzar gave her an abaya to wear that night, the Washington Post reported.
According to Gazzar, a detective said Nabra tripped over the robe and fell just before Martinez Torres struck her with a baseball bat.
Nabra’s body was dumped in a pond close to where she disappeared, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Northern Virginia said the teen died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck.