Green Party Senate candidate Natasha Pettigrew dies after being hit by SUV
September 20, 2010 - 05:02 pm
Updated: September 21, 2010 - 11:38 am
ABC 7 News
Natasha Pettigrew is the Maryland Green Party candidate for the United States Senate race and a victim of an accident. A woman driving an SUV hit Pettigrew as she rode her bicycle on Campus Way, but the driver kept going. She says she thought she had hit a deer.
Pettigrew's mother Kenniss Henry says she is struggling to balance her emotions, but she has one thing she'd like to say to the driver who struck and critically injured her daughter.
"Could you at least stop, hold her, call 911, talk to her, say it's gonna be all right?" asked Henry.
The 30-year-old law student and Green Party candidate is also training for a triathlon. That training is the reason why at 5 a.m. Sunday she went out on her bike.
After the SUV struck her on Landover Road in Largo, Pettigrew's bike was lodged under the SUV. The driver, 41-year-old Christy Littleford, drove without stopping three miles to her Upper Marlboro home. Littleford told police she'd thought she hit an animal and didn't discover the bicycle until she got home. Then, she called police.
Lt. Mark Darby with Maryland State Police said, "At this point, there are no charges but our investigation is ongoing."
Monday afternoon, Kenniss Henry showed us the pictures of Natasha Pettigrew she's been clutching as she sits in the critical care unit. They span from the time Pettigrew was a little girl to college graduate to Senate candidate.
Henry shared, "I'm in her room constantly. It's touch and go. But she has a pulse and she has a heart rate and long as she has a heart rate there is hope. I refuse to give up hope."
UPDATE 11:16 a.m., Sept. 21: Maryland State Police say Pettigrew died last night from her injuries.
"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music"
