The young politician died at 10:30 p.m. on Monday at Prince George's County hospital. She's been critically injured at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday while training for a triathlon. The driver of an SUV said she thought she'd hit a deer until she saw Pettigrew's bicycle caught underneath her truck. She didn't realize the bike was under her car until she arrived home.
The driver of the vehicle, Christy R. Littleford, called the police around 6:30 a.m.
"She had driven to her home and called from her home," said Greg Shipley, a Maryland State Police spokesman told The Washington Post. "The initial indication was that she thought she may have hit a deer or an animal in the roadway. That's the indication our troopers were given. When she arrived home and saw the bicycle, she assumed it was something else."
Natasha Pettigrew was an outstanding woman and a high achiever. She graduated from The Ohio State University and was taking a break from law school to run for the U.S. Senate. She was a law student at The University of Miami in Florida. I send the Pettigrew family my condolences, Natasha sounds like an amazing human being. Given that she is a black woman who attended my alma mater (Ohio State), I feel like I know her myself.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.