Hammer-wielding woman arrested after racist tirade

May 28, 2020

NBC News,

(KPRC) A couple visiting Houston from New Orleans say they were confronted by a woman with a hammer because she apparently mistook them as being Mexican citizens.

Arturo Cordovez and his wife, Dr. Lia Franco, are natives of Ecuador who currently live in New Orleans where Lia is finishing her medical residency. In the last few months, Dr. Franco has been treating COVID-19 patients day after day. To decompress, the couple decided to spend the weekend in Houston over the Memorial Day holiday to unwind.

Sunday afternoon, they were looking for a restaurant when they noticed a woman following in a car behind them.

“So we stopped a little bit on the side and she was still there,” Dr. Franco said

“She stopped behind us,” Arturo Cordovez said. “After that she started showing a hammer through the mirror. She was shaking her arm … and cursing at us I think. I was thinking what did I do?”

The couple called 911 and turned into a gas station where the woman continued to follow them.

Dr. Franco said that’s when the woman pulled beside them and started screaming.

“And we go what do you want?” Dr. Franco said. “And she said screamed ‘You Mexicans, get out of my F**ing country. Go back to your F**ing country.’”