Community leaders are urging law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation following a shocking incident last month in Texas, where a woman allegedly attempted to murder two Palestinian children.
According to FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth, police responded to a disturbance on May 19 between two women at an apartment complex pool in Euless, Texas.
A woman named Elizabeth Wolf, 42, reportedly approached a 32-year-old Palestinian woman, who was wearing a hijab at the time of the incident, as she sat at the pool with her two children.
The mother, who was not identified by the news station, told FOX 4 that Wolf asked where she came from and if the children playing in the pool were hers. After she responded, Wolf allegedly grabbed her 6-year-old son and attempted to pull him away from her, scratching him in the process.
Wolf then reportedly grabbed the woman’s 3-year-old daughter and held her underwater. The mother eventually managed to rescue her daughter, who was shouting for help and coughing up water.
Despite both children being medically cleared by paramedics, the mother says her children are traumatized by the incident.
"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," said the mother, referred to as Mrs. H, in a statement released by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"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," she added.
FOX 4 reports that although Wolf was initially arrested for public intoxication, she was later charged with attempted capital murder and injury to a child. According to a press release from CAIR-Texas, Wolf allegedly told a bystander who helped rescue Mrs. H and her children, "Tell her I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family.”
The organization is advocating for authorities to investigate the incident as a potential hate crime.
"It is believed to be an offense that was committed because of bias or prejudice and that is part of the case it has been filed with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office," the Euless police department told FOX 4 in a statement.
According to a GoFundMe established for the victims, the incident has affected the family’s financial stability. The woman's husband was reportedly fired for frequent absences to accompany his wife and children to appointments and errands following the attack.
The crowdfund has crossed $12,000 in donations out of its original $10,000 goal.
