A Texas woman was arrested after she allegedly attempted to drown a 3-year-old Palestinian Muslim child in an apartment complex pool last month after questioning the child’s mother about their country of origin, according to officials.
Police responded to the apartment complex pool in Euless on May 19 around 5:44 p.m. regarding “a disturbance between two women,” according to a news release from the Euless Police Department.
“Upon arrival, officers were told by witnesses that a woman who was very intoxicated had tried to drown a child and argued with the child’s mother,” police said.
The 32-year-old mother of the child told police that the alleged assailant, Elizabeth Wolf, 42, questioned where she was from and made statements about her not being American, as well as “other racial statements.”
According to a press release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the mother appeared to be visibly Muslim, as she was wearing a hijab and modest swimwear to the pool at the time of the incident.
Police said Wolf also asked the mother if two of the children in the pool were hers before allegedly attempting to grab one of them, a 6-year-old boy, who was able to get away.
“The mother began helping her son when Wolf grabbed her 3-year-old daughter and forced her underwater,” police said. “The mother was able to pull her daughter from the water. Her daughter had been yelling for help and was coughing up water.”
Wolf also allegedly snatched the mother’s headscarf off while she tried to save her daughter and beat her with it, according to CAIR.
Both children were evaluated at the scene and “medically cleared,” according to the police department.
Wolf was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication as she tried to leave the scene. She was charged with attempted capital murder and injury to a child. Police do not believe that Wolf and the victim’s mother knew each other prior to the May 19 incident.
The mother, identified by CAIR as “Mrs. H.,” said that her daughter is traumatized by the incident and hides whenever she opens their apartment door out of fear that Wolf “will come and immerse her head in the water again.”
“We are American citizens, originally from Palestine, and I don’t know where to go to feel safe with my kids,” she told CAIR. “My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here.”
CAIR’s Texas branch is calling on federal and state authorities to investigate the incident as a hate crime. The Euless Police Department has recommended that the incident be considered a hate crime and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office is currently investigating it, a police spokesperson told NBC News.
“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,” said Shaimaa Zayan, CAIR’s Austin operations manager.
In April, CAIR reported receiving 8,061 complaints nationally last year from Muslims who reported experiencing discrimination or hate incidents. It’s the largest number the group has ever gotten at any point in its 30-year history, including after 9/11. The council also reported receiving 3,578 complaints during the last three months of 2023.
State Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Democrat who represents the area in the Texas House, said he was “shocked and appalled” by the alleged racist incident.
“Hate has no place in Euless, District 92, or anywhere in our great state,” Bhojani said.
It’s not clear if Wolf has an attorney at this time.
