PORT DEPOSIT, Md. — On Tuesday night, a park-and-ride on Granite Avenue in Port Deposit became a hangout for a handful of friends when tragedy struck.
“My 13-year-old, his little sister, was watching through the window and saw her brother in the parking lot and she started screaming, ‘Someone hit Avery with a car!’” said Savannah Riley, the victim’s mother.
The Honda Civic had crashed through a split rail fence before striking the 17-year-old sending his body hurtling through the air.
“I came out and my son was laying almost lifeless,” recalled Riley, “He breathed and then stopped breathing so that’s all mom; all that I could think that he’s still breathing. He’s still breathing, but I just held him until the paramedics got here and made me let go.”
Police arrived on the scene and airlifted the victim to the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, but the suspect had disappeared.
“She was no longer on the scene. She had driven away,” said Captain Michael Holmes of the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office.
Detectives learned the driver had intentionally targeted a female with her vehicle who had been standing with the victim.
“The suspect in this case was in an argument with another female over a male subject, and there was an argument earlier in the day,” said Holmes, “The investigation revealed that the female, the suspect, had gone there to confront the other female.”
Witnesses identified the woman as 23-year-old Nola Ratledge of North East and police arrested her a short time later.
The victim’s family says after initially being placed in a medical coma, the injured teen is now on the road to recovery in spite of some serious injuries.
“He had a huge laceration,” said Riley, “I think it was 70… around 70 stitches to close up. Small skull fracture. A broken nose. Some bruised kidneys and stuff.”
The victim tells them he saw the suspect drive by the lot and then her car’s headlights coming at him at a high rate of speed after it turned around… leaving little doubt that she was out to kill.
“I don’t feel safe if she was to get out and be driving around,” said the victim’s mother, “She did this for no reason. What would she do as a retaliation for getting her arrested? So it’s kind of scary, but if she was out, what could she do?”
Ratledge is being held with no bond at the Cecil County Detention Center.
