White woman ran down teen girl with her car just because she was 'a Mexican': police

A white woman in Iowa earlier this month ran down a 14-year-old girl in her Jeep Cherokee just because the girl was Hispanic, police say.

The Des Moines Register reports that 42-year-old Nicole Marie Poole Franklin admitted to police that she targeted a 14-year-old student at the Indian Hills Junior High School while she was walking down the street solely because of her ethnicity.

According to police, the woman tried to run over the girl while she was walking on a sidewalk on her way to school. Even though the girl survived the encounter, she suffered "numerous injuries" after being struck by the car and had to spend several days in the hospital before she was able to return to school, police say.

The Daily Beast reports that police in Clive, Iowa elaborated on the charges against Franklin during a press conference Friday.

"Franklin told investigators that she ran the girl over because she was, in her words, ‘a Mexican,’” Clive Chief of Police Michael Venema explained to reporters. “She went on to make a number of derogatory statements about Latinos to the investigators.”

Franklin has since been charged with attempted murder.