Fox News Flash top headlines for Dec. 24
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The Iowa woman who allegedly ran down a 14-year-old pedestrian Dec. 9 because she thought the girl was "a Mexican," has now been linked to an incident one hour earlier in which a 12-year-old black youth was struck in a similar fashion, according to a report.
In the earlier incident, Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42, is accused of hitting the 12-year-old black boy with her Jeep Cherokee SUV as he walked on a sidewalk within an apartment complex property in Des Moines, the Des Moines Register reported.
Franklin faces new charges of attempted murder in connection with the previously undisclosed case, the Des Moines police said. Witnesses to that incident told police Franklin’s SUV accelerated prior to hitting the unidentified boy and caused minor injuries, the newspaper reported.
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In the initial incident for which Franklin was charged, the driver is accused of striking the girl with her vehicle in Clive, Iowa, and fleeing without rendering assistance, police said. The girl suffered multiple injuries and required hospitalization, the report said.
Detectives charged Franklin after identifying her Thursday as the hit-and-run driver and interviewing her at a local jail where she was being held in an unrelated case, Clive Police Chief Michael Venema said in a news release.
Police used video surveillance footage to tie that hit and run to Franklin’s SUV, Sgt. Paul Parizek of the Des Moines police wrote in an email.
Franklin was charged with attempted murder, Venema said.
Additional charges Franklin faced involved an incident where she allegedly assaulted a Des Moines convenience store clerk with racist remarks.
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About an hour after Miranda was struck by Franklin’s vehicle, West Des Moines police were summoned to a gas station where Franklin allegedly stole merchandise and referred to employees and customers by racial and ethnic slurs, the newspaper reported.
Kevin Reed, 53, told the Des Moines Register on Friday he was checking out at the gas station when he saw Franklin throwing potato chips, destroying merchandise and referring to people by racial and ethnic slurs.
On Sunday, West Des Moines police said Franklin would face a felony hate crime charge — assault in violation of individual rights — for the incident, on top of her previous charges of theft and public intoxication.
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Latino organizations including the League of United Latin American Citizens have called for Franklin to be charged with a hate crime, though authorities have not yet taken that step, the Register reported.
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