An Iowa driver admitted to intentionally hitting a 14-year-old girl, leaving her with a concussion, because the woman, who is white, thought the child was "a Mexican," police said Friday in a news release. Nicole Marie Poole Franklin of Des Moines told investigators she intentionally hit the child while driving on Dec. 9 in Clive, a city about 10 miles west of Des Moines, Clive Police Chief Mike Venema said in the release.
Police initially investigated the incident as a hit-and-run. "The driver and vehicle left the scene without rendering aid to the girl," Venema said. After requesting the public's help to find the driver, police were able to identify Franklin in Polk County Jail, where, Venema noted, she was being held on other charges: “During the interview Franklin not only admitted to being the driver of the car that struck this girl, but also that she had done so intentionally. Franklin told investigators that she ran the girl over because she was, in her words, ‘a Mexican.’ She went on to make a number of derogatory statements about Latinos to the investigators.”
The child, identified by local news station KCCI as Natalia Miranda, said that the crash happened as she walked to a school event. “I don’t remember the impact,” she said. “I just remember the car coming towards me.”
Joe Henry of the Des Moines chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens has called for hate crime charges in the incident and also criticized President Donald Trump. "This is the Trump effect," Henry said. Trump has been widely criticized for using racist and hateful rhetoric to describe Mexican immigrants. This is the same man who called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and "drug dealers" in a speech announcing his presidential bid on June 16, 2015. Henry said that he wants to see local, state, and national leaders stand up. "It's gone too far," he said. "Enough is enough."
Venema said at a news conference that charging Franklin with a hate crime is something police “are certainly looking into." "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," the police chief said. "We're committed to stand by and support this family and work diligently with them to seek justice."