A 22-year-old man charged with the murder of a 17-year-old girl in Virginia over the weekend has had a detainer placed on him by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a suspected illegal alien.
ICE places detainers on suspected illegal aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges so they can take custody of them when they are released from local custody, according to the agency's website.
Darwin Martinez Torres was charged with the murder of Nabra Hassanen on Sunday in what police are describing as a road rage incident, Fox 5 DC reports. Torres got into a dispute with a group of people early Sunday morning on their way back to a sleepover at a mosque in Sterling, Va., according to Fairfax County Police.
After Torres drove his car at the group, he chased after them with a baseball bat and struck Hassanen, police said, before taking her away in his car. He was arrested by a Fairfax County Police officer on Sunday, and Hassanen's body was later found in a pond. Police suspect she may have also been raped.
Fairfax County Police said it did not appear to be a hate crime and the murder was not motivated by Hassanen being a Muslim.
"No evidence has been recovered that shows this was a hate crime," Fairfax County police spokesperson Julie Parker said. "Nothing indicates that this was motivated by race or by religion."
The victim's father, Mahmoud Hassanen, disagreed with police, saying the crime was motivating by his daughter's religion.
ICE released a statement about Torres that it had "probable cause" to believe he was an illegal immigrant and could be deported:
On June 19, ICE lodged a detainer on Darwin Martinez Torres, a citizen and national of El Salvador, with the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax, Virginia. ICE lodges detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges when the agency has probable cause to believe an alien is removable from the United States. Mr. Martinez Torres has no prior encounters with ICE."
UPDATE: 5:00 P.M.: This article was updated to show the group was on their way back to the mosque sleepover, not departing from it. It also has been updated with reports that police suspect the victim was raped.