A woman in Iowa struck a teenage girl earlier this month because she believed the girl was Mexican, according to officials.
Nicole Franklin, 42, told police that she had intentionally run over Natalia Miranda, 14, on December 9 "because she looked Mexican."
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Clive Police Chief Mike Venema said Franklin confessed to steering her SUV onto a sidewalk in the suburban Des Moines community and hitting the teenager, who was walking to school to watch a basketball game.
Charged with attempted murder, Franklin said she then fled the scene, according to Venema, who added about an hour later, she was arrested because of an unrelated offence.
The woman also made a "series of derogatory statements about Latinos" after admitting to the crime, said Venema, noting, it was now clear that woman had made a determination about the girls ethnicity before striking her.
"I want to say in the strongest terms possible that there is no place in our community, or any other for that matter, for this type of hatred or violence," Venema said. "We will work diligently with the family to seek justice."
The girl, who suffered a concussion and severe bruising, said afterwards that said she did not remember the impact.
"I just remember the car coming towards me," Miranda told KCCI. "I was just a girl walking to a basketball game. I didnt deserve this, I didnt deserve to get hit by a car."
In a statement, Ibrahim Hooper, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the organisation has reported an "unprecedented spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims, immigrants and members of other minority groups" since Donald Trump became president.
Critics say that Trumps rhetoric and policies against Muslims before and after his election has emboldened far-right groups and promoted anti-Muslim hate crimes across the country.
The Republican president has also characterized immigrants from Mexico and Central America as criminals, gang members and rapists and described the communities of African American lawmakers on several occasions as "infested" with crime and filth.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/12216
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