Police in Texas say a woman tried to drown a 3-year-old child in an apartment complex pool and then made racist comments. She has been charged with attempted capital murder and injury to a child.
In a news release Friday, the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the family was Muslim and Palestinian. The group also asked state and federal police to look into the incident “as a hate crime and take all precautions to keep the Muslim family and the Muslim community safe.”
On May 19, Euless Police Department officers were called to the pool of an apartment complex to deal with a fight between two women. Police said in a news release that witnesses told them that “a very drunk woman had tried to drown a child and fought with the child’s mother.”
The woman, whose name was Elizabeth Wolf and was 42 years old, was arrested for being drunk in public as she tried to leave.
Fox News said that the victim’s mother told cops that Wolf asked her where she was from and if the two kids playing at the pool were hers. The mother was clearly Muslim because she wore a hijab, which is an Islamic headscarf, and swimwear that was not too revealing, according to the council.
Police say Wolf also said racist things about the mother, like that she wasn’t American.
“When the mother answered, she said Wolf tried to grab her 6-year-old son, but he pushed off of her, scratching his finger.” A news report said, “The mother was helping her son when Wolf grabbed her 3-year-old daughter and forced her to swim.”
The mother was able to get her daughter out of the water, but the girl “waived for help and coughed up water.”
The report says that both kids were given the all-clear by the Euless Medics.
The mother, who was only known as Mrs. H, told the council, “We are American citizens who were born in Palestine, and I don’t know where to go to feel safe with my kids.” “There is a war in my country, and we are facing that hate here.” When I open the door to her apartment, my daughter runs away and hides because she is scared the woman will come back and put her head under the water again.
CNN was told by the Euless Police Department that Wolf got out of Tarrant County Jail on bail.
“The bond for the charge of Attempting to Kill the Governor was $25,000.” “The bond was $15,000 for the Injury to a Child charge,” a police captain told CNN.
It’s not clear if Wolf has a lawyer.
The council’s Austin operations manager, Shaimaa Zayan, said in a statement, “We ask for a hate crime investigation, a higher bail bond, and an open conversation with officials to deal with this alarming rise in Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian sentiment.”
A news release said that Texas Rep. Salman Bhojani was “shocked and appalled by this alleged racist and Islamophobic event that took place in my town.” “Hate doesn’t belong in Euless, District 92, or any other part of our great state.” I appreciate how quickly Euless Police caught the person they thought was the aggressor, and I offer my services to the family who was hurt.
