Woman allegedly tried to drown two Muslim children, charged with attempted murder

Elizabeth Wolf, the woman accused of attempting to drown a Palestinian-American child in a North Texas apartment building pool in May, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder of a person under 10 and assault on a child.

The indictment includes an enhanced hate crime charge and was filed in Tarrant County on Aug. 15, according to court records. Wolf is currently in the Tarrant County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

“We welcome the indictment of the alleged perpetrator of this heinous crime,” said a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Any crime against a child must be treated with the utmost seriousness and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We stand in solidarity with the family and pray that God grants them comfort and justice.”

On May 19, a Palestinian mother who was watching her two young children play in the shallow part of the swimming pool at an apartment complex in Euless was approached by Wolf and asked where she was from, witnesses and police said.

The mother, identified in a CAIR press release as Ms. H., was wearing a headscarf and speaking Arabic to her children. She said Wolf jumped into the pool and dragged her two children into the deep end, where she tried to drown them.

In a press release, police said Wolf tried to grab the 6-year-old boy, but he managed to escape. The 6-year-old is charged with assault on a child, according to court documents. He was grabbed or scratched with the defendant's hand.

Ms. H. tried to help her son, but Wolf grabbed the 3-year-old girl and pushed her under the water, authorities said. Wolf is accused of kicking Ms. H. when Wolf tried to get to the daughter and of ripping off Ms. 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 drunk when she attacked the mother and her children. She was initially arrested for public intoxication as she attempted to leave the area. As police handcuffed her, she screamed, “I'm going to kill her, and I'm going to kill her whole family,” a witness told CAIR.

About a day after her arrest on May 19, Wolf was released on bail. On May 23, the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office charged her with attempted felony assault and battery on a child.

Wolf was rearrested after a judge increased her bail from $40,000 to $1 million in late June.

CAIR called for a hate crime investigation into the case, and Euless police asked the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office to prosecute the case as a hate crime.

A Tarrant County grand jury used hate crimes as a specific aspect of child injury in the indictment against Wolf, saying she “intentionally selected” the victim “due to the defendant's bias or prejudice against any group identified by race, color, religion, or national origin or ancestry,” according to court documents.

Wolf's alleged actions have been condemned by elected officials, including President Joe Biden and 92nd District Representative Salman Bhojani.

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