TEXARKANA, Texas–A Texarkana man arrested last week after allegedly leaving the scene after hitting a pedestrian in a church parking lot intentionally ran the man down, according to court records filed Friday.
Patrick Jerome Cridell Jr., 32, allegedly “swerved” a silver 2011 Kia Forte into the parking lot of Grace Fellowship Church at 2401 Hazel St. in Texarkana, Texas, shortly after 6 p.m. March 30 and accelerated before striking the pedestrian “intentionally,” according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Bowie County on Friday.
The wounded man managed to drag himself onto the campus of nearby Highland Park Elementary School where he was discovered the following day at about 6 a.m. Investigators with the Texarkana Texas Police Dept. concluded that the Kia’s driver ran over the man on purpose after reviewing video surveillance from Texarkana Independent School District which captured the incident, the affidavit said.
The victim of the crash reportedly suffered a brain bleed and traumatic head injury which have left him in a “persistent vegetative state,” the affidavit said.
Shortly after the severely injured man was found and taken for emergency medical care, investigators located a heavily damaged silver Kia parked at a house in the 2800 block of Walnut St., just blocks from the church where the collision occurred.
Cridell had been driving the Kia on March 30 when it was stopped at about 4:30 p.m. by police in Texarkana, Ark., and at that time, the car had no damage, the affidavit said. When the Kia was found the next day on Walnut St. it had a broken windshield, dents in the hood and roof, and “a fresh rubber marking from a shoe across the hood consistent with the video,” the affidavit said.
Cridell is currently being held in the Bowie County jail with bail set at $200,000. He is currently charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and faces two to 20 years if convicted.
The case has been assigned to 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison.
