EULESS, Texas — A Texas woman accused of trying to drown a Muslim child is back in jail following an increase in bond, court records show.
Elizabeth Wolf, 42, was originally arrested on May 19 after Euless police say she made racial remarks to a Muslim woman and tried to drown the woman’s 3-year-old daughter at the family’s apartment complex pool.
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office charged Wolf with attempted capital murder and injury to a child. She was initially released on a $40,000 bond, but she was rearrested last week after Judge Andy Porter increased her bond to $1,015,000, following a finding that the initial bond imposed by a magistrate judge was too low based on a public safety assessment and Wolf’s criminal history. She is currently being held at the Lon Evans Corrections Center in Fort Worth, according to the Tarrant County court website.
Wolf’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Courthouse News Service that while he’s happy Wolf has been rearrested, he feels she never should have been released on only $40,000 to begin with.
“I don’t know how that happened,” Carroll said.
Police say Wolf was initially arrested for public intoxication following a report of a disturbance between two women. The mother, who has not been publicly identified, reportedly told officers that Wolf had approached her and asked her where she was from and if the two children playing at the pool were her’s. According to a statement from CAIR-Texas, the mother was wearing an Islamic headscarf and modest swimwear.
Police say the mother told officers that Wolf then grabbed her 6-year-old son, but he was able to pull away from her, causing a scratch on his finger. Wolf then reportedly grabbed the woman’s 3-year-old daughter and forced her underwater. The mother was able to pull her daughter, who was yelling for help and coughing up water, from the pool, police say.
The mother reportedly told police that Wolf had made racial statements such as saying the mother was not an American. CAIR-Texas said in a statement that after she was handcuffed by an officer, Wolf shouted to a bystander, “Tell her I will kill her, and I will kill her whole family.”
The mother, identified only as Mrs. H, said in a June statement through CAIR-Texas that her family has been left 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,” Mrs. H, said. “My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here. 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.”
Police have recommended the offense be considered a hate crime, according to a statement from the Euless Police Department. The district attorney’s office declined to comment on whether it will pursue a hate crime enhancement in the case.
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