Woman admits running over 14-year-old girl walking to school because the child was Mexican
Earlier today, the Police Chief from Clive, Iowa, Michael G. Venema, reported that on December 9, shortly before 5 p.m. a 14-year-old girl was walking on the sidewalk on her way to school at Indian Hills Jr. High so she could attend a basketball game. While she was walking, a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee left the road and ran the girl over. The young lady suffered numerous wounds and injuries.
The driver of that
vehicle fled the scene without providing any aid or comfort to the victim.
Police determined the incident to be a hit and run.
On December 19, the Clive Police Department identified the
operator of that hit and run vehicle to be Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42,
from Des Moines. Detectives interviewed her at Polk County Jail, where she was already
jailed for other charges in an entirely separate incident that also went down
on December 9.
During the interview, Franklin not only admitted to being the driver of the car that struck the girl, but also confessed that she ran the teen over intentionally.
Franklin told the researchers that she ran over the girl because, in her words, “she was Mexican”. Franklin then made a series of derogatory statements about Latinos to the investigators.
I mean, in the most energetic terms possible, that there is no place in our community (or any other) for this kind of hatred and violence. We are committed to supporting the victim and [her] family and working diligently with them to seek justice. ~ Clive Police Chief Michael G. Venema
Franklin was charged with attempted murder in that hit and run and is currently detained in Polk County Jail. Clive Police detectives will continue collecting information for the Polk County Attorney’s office to help them with their processing.
The teen, identified as Natalia Miranda by ABC News, spent two days in the hospital with a concussion and severe bruising that she suffered in the attack; but she is expected to make a full recovery. Natalia said she remembers the Jeep coming at her, but she does not remember the actual impact.
The hit and run, now an attempted murder charge, was not Franklin’s only excitement that day. She’s also accused of making racist remarks to a convenience store clerk in Des Moines and customers at that store, and also throwing items at the clerk.
Franklin was already in jail when she was being interviewed for Natalia’s hit and run. She was arrested in a separate and unrelated incident, and had already been charged with assault, operating a motor vehicle under the influence, theft and public intoxication, according to The Daily Beast.
(Source: Clive Police Department)
~ Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
