By Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
PINELLAS PARK — The 67-year-old grandmother who was thrown from the hood of a speeding car and run over by another vehicle in a bizarre incident last week is still in critical condition.
Jeri O'Quinn, a former longtime volunteer for the Pinellas Park Police Department, faces a long recovery.
O'Quinn is expected to undergo pelvic surgery today at Bayfront Medical Center, her family said. She has severe head injuries, internal bleeding and has had to have pins and rods inserted into her wrists and ankles.
"She has not woken up yet," said Leanne Almyda of Dunnellon, who considers O'Quinn her adoptive mom. "She's in a drug-induced coma."
While O'Quinn recovers, her family said they hope to fill in some blanks about the strange incident that happened about 9 p.m. Sept. 14, when police found O'Quinn bleeding in the street at 62nd Street N and 110th Avenue. Witnesses said she had been clinging to the hood of a car and was thrown off when the driver slammed on the brakes. Another car then ran over her.
Police said the incident stemmed from a disturbance at a nearby mobile home that was between O'Quinn and a former tenant named Admir Mrakovic.
Mrakovic and his girlfriend had been evicted Sept. 9 from 6082 105th Terrace N, a home O'Quinn owned. He told police he returned to the home to get his wallet when O'Quinn confronted him and jumped on his car as he was leaving.
Witnesses told police Mrakovic then went speeding through the neighborhood, hitting bushes and signs as O'Quinn, who is about 5 feet 4 and 140 pounds, clung to a windshield wiper before being thrown from the hood.
Mrakovic, 24, of 6922 17th Way N in St. Petersburg has been arrested on charges of attempted murder, burglary, reckless driving and leaving the scene of a crash with injury. He remains in the Pinellas County Jail on $115,250 bail.
O'Quinn's family said Mrakovic's version of the incident, and his assertion to authorities that she attacked him, is false.