(AP) - Vigils are being held around the country to honor a Muslim teen who police say was fatally beaten with a baseball bat by an angry driver as she walked with friends to a Virginia mosque this weekend.
Women's Initiative for Self-Empowerment CEO Rana Abdelhamid said by telephone that her group partnered with groups in cities around the nation to hold vigils Tuesday for 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen and stand in solidarity with her family.
Abdelhamid says there were vigils planned in New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit. A vigil also is planned for Wednesday in Hassanen's hometown of Reston, Virginia.
Police say the Egyptian-American girl died of blunt force trauma to the upper body after 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres of El Salvador attacked her with a baseball bat in a Washington suburb. Police have described it as a road rage incident and say there's no evidence to suggest it was a hate crime.
