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Iowa police on Friday announced the arrest of a woman they say admitted to running over a 14-year-old girl with her SUV because the victim was “a Mexican.”
Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42, of Des Moines, was charged with attempted murder after being accused of striking the girl on a sidewalk in Clive, Iowa, on Dec. 9 and fleeing the scene without rendering assistance, police said. The victim suffered numerous injuries.
Detectives charged Franklin after identifying her Thursday as the driver in the hit-and-run and then interviewing her at a local jail where she was being held for an unrelated case, Clive Police Chief Michael Venema said in a news release.
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Mugshot for Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42. (Clive Police Department)
“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,” Venema said. “Franklin told investigators that she ran the girl over because she was, in her words, ‘a Mexican.’”
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“She went on to make a number of derogatory statements about Latinos to the investigators,” he added.
Franklin was charged with attempted murder, Venema said.
“I want to say in the strongest terms possible that there is no place in our community or any other for this type of hatred or violence,” the chief said.
Franklin was accused of driving her SUV onto the girl on a sidewalk as the girl was walking to school to watch a basketball game.
"I don't remember the impact," the teenager told a Des Moines TV station days later. "I just remember the car coming at me."
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Franklin was behind bars after being charged with assaulting a Des Moines convenience store clerk with racist remarks.