NIcole Poole Franklin (Image source: Polk County jail)
A White woman motivated by her apparent hatred for minorities is in jail for a string of crimes she committed in a 24-hour period.
When questioned, Nicole Poole Franklin of Des Moines, Iowa, told police that she charged her SUV at a 14-year-old girl because she “was a Mexican.” It has since been revealed that Franklin also ran over the leg of a 12-year-old Black boy, before leaving that scene.
Community members are pushing for a hate crime designation that would add to her current charges of attempted murder for the driving incidents.
According to CNN, the woman “made a series of derogatory statements about Latinos.”
Franklin was also charged with assault, theft and public intoxication for her role in a convenient store crime only an hour and a half after the second driving incident. In it, she pocketed items, then hurled racial slurs and threw items at a store clerk who questioned whether she’d intended on paying for the goods.
According to police and reports by CNN, footage proves Franklin intentionally hit the 12-year-old boy only an hour before she ran down the 14-year-old girl.
A witness reported that the SUV “gunned its engine” before striking the girl and fleeing the scene.
Thankfully, the boy’s injuries were minor and the girl was back in school within a week after being treated for her injuries.
“I didn’t do anything,” the young victim told CNN affiliate KCCI. “I’m just a girl just walking to a basketball game.”
Franklin, who admitted to taking meth earlier in the day, is awaiting new representation, as the Des Moines public defender’s office has withdrawn from her case.
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