Police urge Texas prosecutors to treat attempted drowning of three-year-old child as hate crime

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas woman allegedly tried to drown a 3-year-old child in the pool at a suburban Dallas apartment complex after making racist comments toward the child’s mother. Investigators are asking that the case be treated as a hate crime, a police spokeswoman said Monday.

Elizabeth Wolf, 42, was charged with attempted murder and assault on a child. The child’s mother told officers that Wolf told her she was not American, among other racist comments, police said.

The children’s mother, who wears a hijab, said in a press release from the Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that they are Palestinians who have become American citizens. Neither police nor CAIR have released the mother’s name.

Euless Police Capt. Brenda Alvarado told the Associated Press that police have asked prosecutors in Tarrant County to treat the case as a hate crime. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said Monday they had received the case and were currently reviewing it.

A police statement said that when officers responded to a 911 call in Euless on May 19 about an altercation between two women, witnesses told officers that a “very intoxicated” Wolf was attempting to drown a child and was arguing with the child’s mother.

The child’s mother told officers that Wolf asked her where she was from and if the two children playing in the pool were hers, police said. The mother told officers that after she answered, Wolf tried to grab the woman’s 6-year-old son, but he broke free of her grasp, causing a scratch on his finger.

Police said as the mother helped her son, Wolf grabbed the woman’s 3-year-old daughter and forced her underwater. The mother pulled her daughter, who was screaming for help and spitting out water, from the pool, police said.

The doctors examined both children and found that they were healthy.

Wolf was released on bail. A call to her lawyer was not immediately returned Monday.

On Saturday, community leaders came together to denounce the attack on the child and the way the woman treated the family.

“The trauma and pain this has caused to the immigrant community in general and the Muslim community in particular cannot be underestimated,” said state Rep. Salman Bhojani, whose district includes part of Euless.