3-month search ends
By Zac Estrada, News Staff
The driver who Boston police said fled the scene where he hit and killed a recent Northeastern graduate faces criminal hit-and-run charges after an arraignment Monday.
Colin Ratiu, 23, of Roslindale, was charged with motor vehicle homicide after hitting Andrew Prior, 23, late Nov. 14 near the Roxbury Crossing T stop.
Boston Police Department (BPD) officers responded around 11:30 p.m. to a call that Prior had been struck by an SUV that kept driving toward Brigham Circle without stopping.
Prior was later rushed to Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after.
BPD headed an investigation to find the driver who left Prior bleeding on Tremont Street as he was riding his scooter home. The investigation culminated last Friday with Ratiu’s arrest, after BPD homicide investigators received a tip about an SUV matching the description of the vehicle that hit Prior parked behind Ratiu’s house, with damage consistent with that of striking a human.
Ratiu was released Monday on $7,500 bail, down from the $25,000 proposed by Assistant District Attorney David Bradley.
According to police reports, Ratiu told a witness he was driving the night of the accident. He later told the same witness he “swerved to avoid a skunk and then hit something and then took off without stopping,” according to a news release issued Monday by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.
“We hope Mr. Prior’s family can find some comfort in the fact that members of the public contacted police with extremely helpful information,” Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said in the release.
Prior graduated May 2010 from Northeastern with a Bachelor of Arts in American Sign Language and English interpretation. (Obituary)
Faculty and students found out about Prior’s death after police recovered his NU ID in his wallet.
When BPD arrived Monday evening at Ratiu’s home, they stopped him and his wife, Sade Holliday, 25, from leaving the premises because a search warrant was under way.
Detectives went inside the home and found four large potted marijuana plants in a grow room, along with a lamp, temperature and humidity sensor, timer and ledger. After Ratiu claimed they were tomato plants, BPD arrested the couple.
Ratiu and Holliday were arraigned Tuesday on charges of marijuana cultivation and possession of a Class D drug with intent to distribute.
Ratiu, who is represented by attorney Neni Odiaga, will return March 11 to Suffolk County Courthouse to face the homicide charge. He and Holliday will return to face the drug charges March 14.
