Vandals set fire to memorial to slain Virginia teen Nabra Hassanen

The memorial erected for Nabra Hassanen, the 17-year-old Muslim girl who was murdered earlier this week, was set on fire Wednesday morning.

Local news station Fox 5 DC reports that Washington, DC fire officials responded to a report of a fire at the memorial at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Officials extinguished the fire, but the memorial was destroyed by the time they arrived on the scene.

The nature of the fire is now under investigation, officials say.

Hassanen was murdered earlier this week in what police have described as a road rage incident. Her suspected killer, a 22-year-old man named Darwin Martinez Torres, got into a verbal argument with her while he was driving in his car, and while she and her friends were walking to a restaurant to have one final feast before their Ramadan fast.

At some point during the argument, Torres pulled over his car, got out, and began chasing the girls with a baseball bat. He eventually abducted Hassanen and took her into his car, while her friends ran to a nearby mosque to get help.

Her body was found later in the day in a nearby pond, and police have since arrested Torres and charged him with second-degree murder.

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