A photo of the items burned in the Dupont Circle fountain, sent by a resident who wishes to remain anonymous, appears to show a dead bird, sticks, and flowers from the memorial.

Hours after hundreds of people gathered last night in Dupont Circle to call for justice for 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen, who was killed in Virginia shortly after leaving a mosque, her memorial was set on fire.

D.C. firefighters were dispatched around 8:30 a.m. for what was reported as a brush fire. The responding unit extinguished the small blaze and requested investigators determine the cause and origin, according to Fire and EMS spokesman Vito Maggiolo.

Jonathan Solomon, a 24-year-old from South Carolina, was arrested and charged with “attending or kindling bonfires,” according to the Metropolitan Police Department. A police report does not list a hate bias motivation.

U.S. Park Police responded to the incident, which occurred in the fountain, an area controlled by the National Park Service. “The items had been collected from within the park. There is no evidence that this incident is related to the memorial held in the park the previous evening,” Park Police said in a statement.

Though items from the memorial were among those burned, “the memorial did not appear to be specifically targeted,” Sergeant Anna Rose said via email.

A photo of the burned items seems to show some of the flowers from the memorial along with some sticks and a dead bird.

Police have charged 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres for Hassanen’s murder, which took place around 3:40 a.m. on Sunday.

Hassanen and more than two dozen teens were en route back to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in Fairfax County to observe Ramadan. One teen got in an argument with the driver of a red car, who has been identified as Torres.

Witnesses told police that the teens scattered after Torres drove his car on the curb, but he caught up with some of them in a parking lot a short while later. They reported that he got out of his car and began chasing them with a baseball bat, striking Hassanen. Torres then took her to another location in Loudoun County, according to police, where she was assaulted again. Police are investigating whether Hassanen was also sexually assaulted.

Police found Torres by identifying his car around 5:15 a.m. and took him into custody. Hassanen’s body was found in a pond later that afternoon. Autopsy results showed that she suffered from blunt force trauma to the upper body.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has that that Torres, who is originally from El Salvador, was living in the U.S. illegally, and officials have filed a detainer against him.

Police say they have no evidence that Torres’s actions were motivated by hate or discrimination. Instead, they say his “anger over the encounter” with the teens led to the violence, and they are calling the incident an act of road rage.

Nonetheless, the killing has come amid a number of violent attacks on Muslims, leaving many deeply suspicious that Hassan had been targeted for her religion.

On Tuesday night, hundreds came to Dupont Circle to mourn the loss of life and call for action against attacks on Muslim women.

“We as a group last night [gathered] in unity and solidarity. Love is stronger than any hate that tries to stop us,” said attendee Elayne Burke.

Another vigil for Nabra is planned tonight in Reston.

This post has been updated with additional detail about the burned items and information about tonight’s detail.

Filed Under: dupont circle, memorial, nabra Hassanen, nps, park police,