Update (August 20, 2021): Nicole Poole Franklin has been sentenced to more than 25 years behind bars in a federal institution for committing two hate crimes against minors.
On Dec. 9, 2019, the 42-year-old was driving her Jeep in Des Moines, Iowa, and attempted to kill two children, one Hispanic and the other Black, as Blavity previously reported.
According to the Department of Justice, earlier that day she saw children who she believed to be of Middle Eastern or African descent walking on Creston Avenue. She then drove her vehicle onto the curb hitting one of the children who suffered cuts, bruises and swelling.
Thirty minutes later, while driving near Indian Hills Junior High School, she struck another child who she believed to be Mexican. He suffered severe injuries including a concussion, cuts and bruises.
Franklin was arrested later that day and the FBI launched an investigation into the incident and charged her with two hate crimes.
On Apr. 22, she pleaded guilty in a federal court to the charges.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division said Franklin “attempted to kill two children because of the way they looked and where she believed they came from. This kind of egregious racial violence and hatred has absolutely no place in this country and will not be tolerated by the Justice Department.”
“Nothing can be more devastating to the American dream of equal rights than the actions of Poole Franklin on a hate filled Dec. 9, 2019, as she callously attempted to run over and kill a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl,” Acting U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal said in a statement.
He continued, they were “two minors who had done nothing wrong other than innocently walk on a street and happen to be of a different race and skin color from Poole Franklin.”
Update (December 26, 2019): A white motorist named Nicole Poole Franklin has now been charged with hitting another child.
The first victim was a 12-year-old Black boy.
The incident occurred at approximately 3:54 p.m., about an hour before she struck a Hispanic girl "because she was a Mexican." Franklin first appeared in the news for the latter incident in which she attempted to kill the 14-year-old girl.
The boy was hit as he walked on an apartment complex in Des Moines. Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek confirmed that there is footage of Franklin hitting the 12-year-old by accelerating her the engine of her SUV, jumping over a curb, running over his leg and fleeing the scene.
The boy sustained minor injuries.
The Des Moines Adult Public Defender's Office has withdrawn from Franklin's case. The district attorney will appoint a new lawyer during Franklin's first hearing for the first attempted murder charge on December 30, reports CNN.
Amidst her previous charges, Franklin may also be charged with a felony hate crime. However, that may not be enough to exact justice.
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone stated that charging Franklin with attempted murder and a hate crime could introduce the possibility of a jury dropping the attempted murder charge.
As of Tuesday, Franklin remained in police custody in the Polk County Jail with bail set at $1 million.
Original story (December 23, 2019): Police in Des Moines, Iowa, have charged a woman with attempted murder after she admitted to running over a little girl "because she was Mexican."
According to court records obtained by NBC, 42-year-old Nicole Marie Poole Franklin told police she intentionally ran over a 14-year-old girl with her black Jeep Grand Cherokee on December 9.
"Franklin told investigators that she ran the girl over because, in her words, she was 'a Mexican.' She went on to make a number of derogatory statements about Latinos to our investigators. There is no place in our community, or in any other for that matter, for this type of hatred or violence," Clive Police Chief Michael Venema said during a press conference on Friday.
"Shocked would be an understatement. I've been in law enforcement for 35 years, and I get very used to people being a little bit callous or maybe leaving the scene of an accident and not caring about someone who's been hurt if they did so unintentionally. I was very shocked to hear that this was an intentional act," Venema added.
Witnesses and surveillance video in the area showed Franklin hitting Natalia Miranda.
According to a complaint by the police department, Franklin "admitted she intentionally struck the victim intending to injure or kill her. She struck the victim because the victim is Hispanic."
The child suffered a concussion and is dealing with injuries all over her body but returned to school a week after she was hit.
“I don't remember the impact. I just remember the car coming towards me,” Miranda told Des Moines television station KCCI.
In addition to attempted murder charges, Franklin is facing assault, theft, consumption, intoxication and possession of illegal substances charges according to court documents. Franklin is currently being held on a $1 million bond in Polk County Jail.
Venema said that police were still considering whether to charge Franklin with a hate crime.
The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa said in a statement that they have asked the Polk County Attorney’s Office to file a hate crime charge in the case.
“This attack was a racially motivated hate crime and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We strongly urge Polk County officials to file hate crime charges against the suspect,” the group said.
Franklin was initially arrested for another crime before police connected her to the hit-and-run. Fifteen minutes after Miranda was hit, police responded to a public disturbance call at a Conoco gas station nearby. According to the police report, Franklin shouted racial slurs at an employee of the store and at other customers before throwing things at them.
Franklin has a lengthy criminal history and has been arrested multiple times, including on December 7 when she refused to leave a Sheraton Hotel and was found with marijuana. Last year, she was charged with harassment and domestic abuse assault after she bit her boyfriend and threatened to stab him to death with a knife.
