TX woman accused of trying to kill Palestinian kids. Muslim group seeks hate crime charge.

The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and local community leaders are calling on authorities to further investigate the alleged hate-motivated attempted murder of two children in Euless.

The attack happened on May 19 at a swimming pool at a Euless apartment complex and led to the arrest of a woman on charges of attempted capital murder and injury to a child, according to Euless police.

A Muslim mother, referred to in a CAIR news release as Mrs. H, was watching her children in the shallow end of the pool when the suspect, identified by police as 42-year-old Elizabeth Wolf, also entered the swimming pool area, the mother told police and CAIR.

Mrs. H was wearing a hijab and modest swimwear at the time, CAIR said.

Wolf, who is white, approached the mother while making racist comments, witnesses told CAIR and police.

Police say Wolf also asked Mrs. H where she was from and if the two children in the pool were hers.

Wolf then jumped into the pool and pulled Mrs. H’s children to the deep end, where she tried to drown them, the mother said. “Wolf tried to grab (the mother’s) 6-year-old son, but he pulled away from her grasp, which caused a scratch on his finger,” Euless police said in a statement on Friday. “The mother began helping her son when Wolf grabbed her 3-year-old daughter and forced her underwater. The mother was able to pull her daughter from the water. Her daughter had been yelling for help and was coughing up water.”

Mrs. H told authorities she jumped into the pool to save her children. Her 6-year-old son was able to escape, but her 3-year-old daughter was not, according to the CAIR release. The attacker “snatched” the hijab off the mother’s head and used it to beat and kick her, trying to keep her away while forcing her daughter’s head underwater, the mother told CAIR.

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A man helped the mother rescue her daughter from the attacker, according to CAIR’s statement. As Wolf was being handcuffed by police, she allegedly shouted to a witness who was with Mrs. H, “Tell her I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family,” CAIR said in the release.

Witnesses told police Wolf was intoxicated when she attacked the mother and her children. She was initially arrested on a charge of public intoxication, according to police.

According to CAIR’s Austin operations manager, Shaimaa Zayan, Wolf was able to bail herself out of jail a day after being arrested.

The local Muslim organization is calling for federal and state authorities to investigate the attack as a hate crime.

“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,” Zayan said. “We ask for hate-crime probe, a higher bail bond, and an open conversation with officials to address this alarming increase in Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian sentiment.”

Mrs. H, whose family are American citizens from Palestine, says she doesn’t know where she can go to feel safe with her children.

“My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here,” the mother said in the statement.

Taha Taha, an attorney working on the case, said, “Every person has the right to feel safe and protected in their community. Our politicians and leaders must be careful when they address the media about foreign affairs to prevent acts of hatred that can only be attributed to Islamophobia and ignorance.”

Texas State Rep. Salman Bhojani, representing House District 92, says his office is monitoring the case as it develops.

“I’m shocked and appalled by this alleged racist, Islamophobic occurrence that took place in my town. Hate has no place in Euless, District 92, or anywhere in our great state,” Bhojani said.

The case is being prosecuted by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.

A CAIR news conference discussing the alleged hate crime will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The mother says the attack has jeopardized her husband’s job because he’s had to take time away to accompany his family to appointments and errands.

As a result, the family is looking to raise $5,000 to provide financial assistance for the husband and the children as they recover from the trauma of the attack.