Man Sentenced To Life For Raping, Killing Reston Teen: Report

RESTON, VA -- Darwin Martinez Torres will spend the rest of his life behind bars for abducting, raping, and killing Reston teen Nabra Hassanen in the summer of 2017, according to a report.

Torres, the Sterling man who was 22 at the time of the murder, was accused of killing Hassanen, a 17-year-old student of South Lakes High School who was walking with friends near her mosque when she was attacked. The killing led to a national outcry over what was perceived to be a hate crime, but police say that road rage was the real motivation.

Washington Post reporter Justin Jouenval tweeted at 10:22 a.m. Thursday that Torres had been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Hassanen.

Hassanen's remains were found in a pond in the 21500 block of Ridgetop Circle in Sterling, not far from where she had been reported missing at around 4 a.m. on a Sunday in mid June 2017 near Dranesville and Woodson roads in Herndon.

Police say she had been walking there with her friends when they "got into a dispute with a man in a car." All of the teens except Hassanen fled to the nearby mosque they attended, reporting to the authorities that she had been assaulted and prompting an extensive search of the area by police.

BuzzFeed News reported that the group of teens she was walking with taunted Martinez Torres before the attack. However, a different account described in the article suggests that he followed the group when they left McDonald's.

Police said they believe Martinez Torres hit Hassanen with a baseball bat and then took her with him in his car to a second location, where he assaulted her a second time and then dumped her body, returning to the scene of the altercation where a patrolling officer spotted him about an hour and a half after the argument first started.

Even if Torres had not been sentenced to life in prison, it was unlikely he would ever be released on American soil: the government was considering deporting him because he may be a citizen and national of El Salvador.

Hassanen was out early in the morning that day with her friends because it was Ramadan at the time, a month-long period of fasting in the Islamic tradition when Muslims refrain from eating or drinking from sunrise until sunset. Hassanen and many teens like her in the area reportedly enjoy hanging out at an IHOP or McDonald's near their mosque early in the morning to eat before the day's fasting begins at sunrise. When Martinez Torres reportedly confronted Hassanen, she had been walking with her friends after going to one of those restaurants.

The All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), located on Sugarland Road in Sterling near where the confrontation happened, describes itself as being an "Islamic center that is open and inviting to both men and women, young and old, and visitors of other faiths," according to its website. The ADAMS Center also says it is "committed to providing all of its attendees with a safe and welcoming environment to worship, learn, socialize, and serve the center and the greater community."

The ADAMS Center released a statement after Hassanen's death, saying mosque leadership was "devastated and heartbroken" over the incident.

"It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth," the statement reads. "ADAMS has licensed counselors on site to assist anyone in need of counseling during these difficult times. We would also like to thank our community, government officials and interfaith partners for their prayers and support during these tough times."

The family was devastated by the news of her killing, with the Washington Post reporting that her mother was weeping and in contact with relatives in her native Egypt.

"Please pray for me, please pray for me," Sawsan Gazzar said in Arabic at her apartment while surrounded by more than 30 women in Muslim garb, according to the Post. "Pray for me that I can handle this . . . I lost my daughter, my first reason for happiness."