A Texas woman has been charged with attempted capital murder and injury to a child after allegedly trying to drown a 3-year-old Muslim toddler in what authorities are investigating as a potential hate crime.
Witnesses told policee that Elizabeth Wolf, 42, tried to drown the girl after arguing with the mother at an apartment complex swimming pool last month in Euless.
The victim's mother, who is Muslim and wears a hijab, said Wolf began questioning where she was from and if the two children playing at the pool were hers.
At one point, Wolf allegedly jumped into the pool to pull the woman's 6-year-old son into the deep end. He managed to pull away, but Wolf then allegedly attempted to force his 3-year-old sister underwater.
The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who identified the family as Muslim and Palestinian, said in a statement that when the mother tried to rescue her daughter, Wolf allegedly "snatched off the woman's head scarf as well as kicking her to keep her away while forcing her daughter's head underwater."
As Wolf was taken into custody by police officers, she allegedly shouted to a bystander who was comforting the mother, "Tell her I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family," according to the CAIR statement.
"We are American citizens, originally from Palestine, and I don't know where to go to feel safe with my kids," the mother said in a statement provided by CAIR.
"My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here," she said.
The mother said her daughter remains traumatized by the confrontation.
"Whenever I open the apartment door, she runs away and hides, telling me she is afraid the lady will come and immerse her head in the water again."
The Euless Police Department confirmed to CNN that Wolf has posted $40,000 bail.
CAIR now seeks not only a hate crime probe but also a higher bail bond and a dialogue with officials about "Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian sentiment," Shaimaa Zayan, the council's Austin operations manager, said in a statement.
"We are seeing a new level of bigotry here where a person deeply believes they get to decide, based on religion, spoken language, and country of origin, whose kids deserve to stay alive and whose don't," she added.
