Bail set for woman accused of intentionally hitting 2 teens with SUV
Bail was set at $250,000 Thursday for a woman accused of intentionally hitting two teenagers with her SUV near a Henderson high school.
Fatima Mitchell, 36, is being held in the Henderson Detention Center on a count of attempted murder with a deadly weapon.
“The danger to this community and her contact, specifically with children in this case, was shocking your honor,” said Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Barbara Schifalacqua, who asked for no bail.
Clark County School District police arrested Mitchell after the crash Monday afternoon at Palo Verde Drive and Burkholder Boulevard, near Basic High School.
Henderson police said Mitchell targeted the girls because they had gotten into a fight with her teenage daughter, according to her arrest report. She told police that she saw the girls fighting and accelerated her Chevrolet Tahoe, rolling over a curb and striking the girls, a sign and a tree, police said.
Justice of the Peace Sam Bateman said that he has seen an increase of parents interjecting in high school fights and “taking it into their own hands and coming on campus” and that he was “not surprised” that it would rise into an alleged attempted murder.
“I don’t know how to stop it, somebody is gonna have to do it,” the judge said. “This is the exact type of case — as I see these cases more and more — this is exactly what is likely to happen.”
Quoting from the arrest report, Schifalacqua said Mitchell uttered things such as, “She would have hit more children if possible” and that she had “wanted to take them out.”
That those words came “out of her mouth is a clear intent that if she were released, she would be a continued danger,” the prosecutor said.
Attorney Roger Bailey, who is representing Mitchell, asked for a $50,000 bail and house arrest, noting that she had acted out of character, adding that she does not have a criminal history in Nevada.
“Emotions were heightened,” he said. “She acted completely irrational.”
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.
