Elizabeth Wolf, Euless, Texas woman arrested trying to drown 3 year old Palestinian girl at apartment complex pool after confronting mom wearing hijab as calls are now made to level hate crime charges.
A Texas woman has been accused of trying to drown a three-year-old Palestinian girl at an apartment complex pool after making racist remarks to her mother last month.
Elizabeth Wolf, 42, was arrested and booked with a slew of charges, including attempted capital murder, injury to a child and public intoxication following the violent incident at the pool in Euless, just outside Dallas, on Sunday, May 19th KSAT reported.
A drunk Wolf, is accused of approaching the girl’s hijab-wearing mother who was also donning modest swimwear by the poolside and interrogating her about where she was originally from.
Targeted because she was Muslim
She then allegedly jumped into the shallow end of the pool where the 3 year old girl and her six-year-old brother were playing and tried to grab them both, police said.
The boy managed to break free but Wolf allegedly dragged the sibling to the deeper end and started dunking her head underwater.
The girl’s mom and another bystander jumped into the pool and were able to rescue the girl, cops said.
Both kids were later cleared by medics at the scene.
‘We are American citizens, originally from Palestine, and I don’t know where to go to feel safe with my kids. My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here,’ the mom, identified only as Mrs H, said in the aftermath according to KSAT.
‘My daughter is traumatized; 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.’
‘Tell her I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family,’
Wolf, who was arrested as she tried to leave the scene, was bailed out of jail the day after posting bond from Tarrant County Jail.
Bond for the Attempted Capital Murder charge was $25,000. The bond for the Injury to a Child charge was $15,000.
Once police showed up and Wolf was cuffed, Wolf allegedly screamed to a bystander who was trying to console the shaken-up mother.
‘Tell her I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family,’ Wolf allegedly said.
Wolf who is accused of having motivated by racism towards Muslims now also faces possible hate crime charges.
The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations have since called on state and federal authorities to probe the ordeal as a hate crime.
Upon discovery the mother was Palestinian Elizabeth Wolf dragged 2 children ages 3 & 6 to the deep end of the pool & tried to drown them. As she was pushing the 3yr old girls head under water she was beating and kicking the mother to keep her away. https://t.co/YftbW61dbO pic.twitter.com/VQv3RuTjGO
— Neveen (@neveen___a) June 22, 2024
Islamophobia and Anti-Arab bigotry
‘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,’ CAIR-Austin Operations Manager, Shaimaa Zayan, said in a statement.
‘I was devastated to know that the attacker got a bail bond out of jail the next day after the arrest. We ask for hate-crime probe, a higher bail bond, and an open conversation with officials to address this alarming increase in Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian sentiment.’
According to a statement the family provided to CAIR, the mother told police that Wolf also ripped her headscarf off and beat her with it.
The mother told authorities Wolf kicked at her too as she tried to save her child.
A GoFundMe fundraiser had also been launched to help the afflicted family – which as of Monday afternoon had raised $16,835.
