Woman accused of trying to drown 2 Muslim children indicted on attempted capital murder charge
Elizabeth Wolf, the woman accused of trying to drown a Palestinian-American child at a North Texas apartment pool in May, has been indicted by a grand jury on the charges of attempted capital murder of a person under 10 and injury to a child.
The indictment includes a hate crime enhancement and was filed in Tarrant County on Aug. 15, according to court records. Wolf is currently in the Tarrant County Jail with bond set at $1 million.
“We welcome the indictment of the suspected perpetrator of this horrific crime,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement. “Any crime against a child must be treated with the utmost seriousness and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We stand in solidarity with the family and pray that God grants them solace and justice.”
On May 19, a Palestinian mother watching her two young children play in the shallow end of the swimming pool at a Euless apartment complex was approached by Wolf, who asked her where she was from, according to witnesses and police.
The mother, identified as Mrs. H in a CAIR news release, was wearing a hijab and speaking Arabic to her children. She said Wolf jumped into the pool and pulled her two children to the deep end where she tried to drown them.
Police said in a news release that Wolf attempted to grab the 6-year-old boy, but he managed to get away. The 6-year-old is the victim of the injury-to-a-child charge, according to court records. He was grabbed or scratched with the defendant’s hand.
Mrs. H went to help her son, but Wolf grabbed the 3-year-old girl and forced her under the water, authorities said. Wolf is accused of kicking Mrs. H as Wolf tried to get to the daughter, and pulling off Mrs. H’s hijab and hitting her with it, according to CAIR. A man jumped into the water and helped rescue the little girl.
Witnesses told Euless police that Wolf was intoxicated when she attacked the mother and her children. She was initially arrested on a charge of public intoxication when she tried to leave the area. As she was being handcuffed by police she shouted, “I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family,” a witness told CAIR.
Wolf was released on bond about a day after her May 19 arrest. On May 23, Tarrant County prosecutors filed charges against her of attempted capital murder and injury to a child.
Wolf was arrested again after a judge increased her bond from $40,000 to $1 million in late June.
CAIR called for a hate-crime probe into the case, and Euless police asked the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office to prosecute the case as a hate crime.
A Tarrant County grand jury included hate crime as a special issue on the child injury charge in Wolf’s indictment, saying she “intentionally selected” the victim “because of the defendant’s bias or prejudice against a group identified by race, color, religion, or national origin or ancestry,” according to court documents.
Wolf’s alleged actions have received condemnation from elected leaders, including President Joe Biden and District 92 Rep. Salman Bhojani.
This story was originally published August 31, 2024 at 3:06 PM.
