Texas grand jury indicts woman in attempted drowning of Palestinian-American girl
Elizabeth Wolf allegedly forced 3-year-old’s head under water at pool, grabbed for 6-year-old brother after making racial remarks to mother; indictment includes hate crime enhancement
A Texas woman has been formally indicted by a grand jury in the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American Muslim girl in a May incident that local police said was motivated by racial bias.
The suspect, identified as Elizabeth Wolf, aged 42, was charged by a Tarrant County grand jury in an indictment filed last month that included a hate crime enhancement, according to court records that came to light on Tuesday. The enhancement may raise the severity of Wolf’s sentence if she is found guilty.
Wolf, whose representative could not immediately be reached for comment, was charged with attempted capital murder of a person under 10 years of age and intentionally causing bodily injury to a child.
According to a police report, the incident in May occurred at an apartment complex swimming pool in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Euless.
The child’s mother told officers that Wolf had asked her where she was from, and if the two children with her in the pool, a boy 6, and the girl, were hers, according to the police report. The mother told officers that Wolf made remarks about her not being an American and “other racial statements.”
Wolf then jumped into the water and grabbed at the boy and girl. The boy managed to pull away with the help of his mother, though suffering a scratch to his finger. Wolf forced the girl’s head underwater, police said.
The mother was able to free the girl as the youngster called for help and “was coughing up water,” police said. Local medics responded to the scene and the children were medically cleared.
Hate crimes have risen in the US since the outbreak of war in Gaza last year, when the Hamas terror group attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian discrimination and hate in the US rose by about 180 percent in the three months after the October attack, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Antisemitic hate crimes more than tripled in the same period, according to FBI data.
