The liberal Washington Post underlined its reputation as a liberal rag on Tuesday by burying the immigration status of a man who killed a Muslim teenager in suburban northern Virginia. They wear "Democracy Dies in Darkness" T-shirts and then put anything in the "darkness" that's inconvenient to their liberal agenda.
The front-page headline was "Police in Va. probe road rage in girl's killing. There was a picture of the victim in her hijab. The alleged assailant appeared in the third paragraph of a story by Justin Jouvenal and Julie Zauzmer:
The driver, Darwin Martinez Torres, a 22-year-old construction worker from Sterling, got into an argument with a teen on a bike and then drove his car over a curb, scattering the group of as many as 15 teens, police said.
He caught up with them a short time later in a parking lot and chased them with a baseball bat, striking 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen and then abducting her in his car, police said.
Martinez Torres assaulted Nabra a second time, in Loudoun County, before dumping her body in a pond next to his apartment complex, where it was discovered about 3 p.m. on Sunday, police said. The medical examiner ruled Monday that the girl died of blunt-force trauma to the head and neck.
One can easily imagine an editor overlooking this story: "Let's not inflame the Trump fans and say anything about immigration status." Why inflame the Latino lobby? Inside the paper on page 11, in paragraph 23, they sprinkled in the D-word -- deportation -- but never used an I-word in 35 paragraphs, for "illegally in the country."
Martinez Torres was held without bond following a brief arraignment Monday in Fairfax County juvenile court. All cases involving juveniles are heard in juvenile court in Virginia, even when defendants are adults.
Appearing on a video monitor from the county jail, Martinez Torres spoke through a Spanish translator to answer a judge’s questions. He was appointed a public defender, and his next court appearance was set for July 19. U.S. immigration officials requested that a “detainer” be placed on him at the county jail, meaning they are interested in possible future deportation proceedings.
Fairfax prosecutors offered no new information about the case during the Monday hearing for Martinez Torres and declined to comment afterward.
An aunt who was at the court but declined to give her name said Martinez Torres’s family is shocked and mystified about the charges against him.
The aunt said Martinez Torres was at a Sterling park with her mother hours before the incident. She said Martinez Torres left the park at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday to head home.
Family members said the man worked in construction. He is Salvadoran and has a 4-year-old son and a girlfriend. He attended school briefly in the United States.
The aunt said she thought that Martinez Torres did not know Nabra, adding that family members also did not know the girl.
The online story was accompanied by a heartbreaking video of the mourning father, who cannot understand why this man would kill his teenaged daughter. (The video didn't have a peep on immigration.) In print, the father insisted "he killed her because she's a Muslim -- that is what I tell the detective." The Post story did include an Islamophobia tweak in paragraph 7:
Many feared it was another hate crime targeting Muslims, coming shortly before a man driving a truck in London plowed into a group of people who had just finished Ramadan prayers. It follows a national upswing in attacks targeting Muslims since the November election.
So far, Fairfax County police said they have no indication that Nabra was targeted because of her religion, saying her killing was probably a “road rage incident,” although they continue to investigate the motivation.
“There was no indication of any racial slurs or any back-and-forth other than a verbal argument,” Lt. Bryan Holland said.
