WILKINSBURG, Pa. — Angela Sibley was at home when she heard that something had happened on Doyle Street. She ran toward the scene and found her 14-year-old daughter Prudence lying on the pavement, legs twisted at unnatural angles, barely coherent.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Angela said. “I was scared.”
Prudence and her best friend had been walking together when authorities say George Mitchell deliberately drove his vehicle toward them. He did not stop. He did not come back.
“You see somebody, you swerve out of the way. You don’t swerve towards them.”— Angela Sibley, Prudence’s mother
Prudence suffered broken bones in both legs, a fractured collarbone, and fractures in her pelvis. She underwent two surgeries in less than 24 hours. Doctors have not yet confirmed whether she will make a full recovery, and more surgeries are expected.
Despite the severity of her injuries, Prudence somehow managed to keep her nurses laughing in the hours after surgery. Her mother thinks it was adrenaline. “It didn’t last that long,” Angela said. “As soon as it wore off, she was hollering.”
What we know
- George Mitchell allegedly struck two teens on Doyle Street, then fled the scene without stopping
- Earlier that same day, Mitchell is also accused of hitting a man and a 17-year-old on Sampson Street
- That same evening, Mitchell drove a stabbing victim to a hospital — she later died
- Prudence’s best friend, who was with her at the time, was injured but had no broken bones
- Prudence’s parents say doctors still don’t know if she will make a full recovery
Thursday’s violence was not an isolated incident for Mitchell. Before hitting the two teens on Doyle Street, he had allegedly struck a man and a 17-year-old with his car on Sampson Street. Later that evening, he drove a woman who had been stabbed to a hospital. She did not survive.
It is the weight of that last detail that Angela Sibley keeps returning to. “He could have stopped the car,” she said. “He could have got out. He could have stopped them. Anything could have happened.”
Jerome Sibley, Prudence’s father, is trying to hold his family together even as he processes his own anger. “It’s hard not to be upset with the world,” he said. “And at the same time, we got to try to be strong for her and each other.”
Both parents say they want justice — and they want Mitchell to understand what he has taken from their family, at least for now. “I just hope that he realizes what he did,” Angela said, “and he’s remorseful.”
Prudence’s family is asking for prayers as they face more surgeries ahead.
