Who is Nicole Poole Franklin? Iowa woman who ran over girl, 14, with her car for being 'Mexican' pleads guilty
A 14-year-old schoolgirl was reportedly run over by a woman in Iowa because she was "Mexican" in 2019. The accused, Nicole Poole Franklin, has pleaded guilty to the charge. According to reports, the police had initially believed that the accident was a hit-and-run. Upon investigation, however, it was revealed that the accident was in fact intentional.
The Clive Police Department on their Facebook page released a press note in 2019 which it stated, "On December 9, shortly before 5 pm, a 14-year-old girl walked down the sidewalk on her way to an activity in Indian Hills Jr High School. A vehicle left the road and ran over the girl. She suffered numerous wounds." The victim had given an interview to CNN in which she said, "I don't remember the impact, I just remember the car coming toward me. I didn't do anything, I'm just a girl just walking to a basketball game."
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Who is Nicole Poole Franklin?
The driver who had run over the 14-year-old schoolgirl was identified as Nicole Poole Franklin. At first, the police had reached out for the public's help in locating her as she had fled the scene. After the intentional hit-and-run incident, Franklin had been arrested on other unrelated charges and was being held at Polk County Jail.
Franklin was charged with attempted murder after she confessed to intentionally driving on the sidewalk to run over the girl because she was "Mexican". She had also reportedly made a series of derogatory comments about Latinos at this time.
In a press conference, Police Chief Michael Venema had said, "We're going to present all of that information to the prosecutors and ultimately they will make the determination on what crimes to prosecute." According to CNN, Franklin was reportedly involved in three racially motivated hate crimes, according to two different police departments.
In one incident, Franklin ran over the leg of a 12-year-old Black boy before fleeing the scene. It was reported that the boy had been walking along the curb of a Des Moines apartment parking lot when an SUV jumped the curb, ran over his leg, and fled. It was reported that a witness had claimed that the driver of the SUV had "gunned its engine" before hitting the boy. The boy suffered minor injuries, reported police.
This was an hour before she ran over the 14-year-old girl. She also attacked a convenience store clerk verbally and used racist slurs. When Franklin plead guilty, the victim's family was in court, according to Cesar Miranda, the father of the 14-year-old girl, Speaking to CNN, he said, "It's just hard to believe that someone can have the heart to do that to somebody, to hurt someone just because they believe you're Mexican, believe you are Latino, or your skin color and just think you don't deserve to be here."
He then added, "This just gave me a little hope to say 'I can live here, my kids can live here. We can walk anywhere, we can live in any corner of this country without anybody judging us because of skin color or where they think we are from or whether they think we deserve to live here."