Last Wednesday an arrest warrant was issued for the alleged driver of the SUV that struck and killed Natasha Pettigrew, according to her mother, Keniss Henry. These charges had been expected for the last month. The driver was released on bail on Friday, she added.
(Jim Titus is a cycling activist from Prince George's County. The views expressed herein do not represent any organization with which he is affiliated)
That story never, ever rang true. No one would ever hit something they thought was a deer, not stop to check out the damage and drive home with a bike wedged underneath the car.
Still, the amount of time that has lapsed cannot help the investigation.
Posted by: Crickey7 | October 10, 2011 at 02:29 PM
No one would ever hit something they thought was a deer, not stop to check out the damage and drive home with a bike wedged underneath the car.
Crickey7,
If you're a single woman afraid on being out on a road alone at night, you might. (The scraping metal could be attributed to a damaged exhaust system.) On the other hand, this is also the kind of story you might make up if you had just hit a cyclist. It looks like the police have gone with the latter explanation.
Posted by: guez | October 10, 2011 at 11:52 PM
The only excuse for this taking so long is if plea negoations were taking a long time. Justice needs to be swift.
While more facts may come out, it is difficult to beleive any part of the drivers case. Most times you don't stop at 4 AM for one reason: you are blasted out of your mind and don't want to call attention to that.
Posted by: charlie | October 11, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Most times you don't stop at 4 AM for one reason: you are blasted out of your mind and don't want to call attention to that.
My understanding was that drugs and alcohol were not believed to be a factor in this particular crash. I'm all for quick justice, but not if its based on someone's "gut" instinct.
Posted by: guez | October 11, 2011 at 05:57 PM
@Guez; read carefully. It isn't the drug and alchol is a factor in the crash. It is the fact that you are taking drugs and alcohol and don't want to explain to the police why you hit someone.
Posted by: charlie | October 11, 2011 at 06:18 PM
It was always pretty clear that the owner was not drunk. Whether she was the driver as she claimed or covering for someone else was less clear. Perhaps it took some time for the prosecutors to be sure.
Posted by: Jim Titus | October 11, 2011 at 08:31 PM
I don't think an official timeline of events has ever been released. At the time I recall one of the media outlets reported that the woman reported the accident SEVERAL hours later.
And we don't know how long it was before she was interviewed.
Do we even know if she was tested?
Posted by: JeffB | October 12, 2011 at 09:48 AM
As far as I know, the police visited the SUV owner about two hours after the accident. I doubt she was tested. The 4th Amendment protects people in their homes.
Posted by: Jim Titus | October 12, 2011 at 11:13 PM