Ronell Somerville

CRANBERRY TWP — A township woman is accused of running down a friend in a vehicle after the two got into an argument at a convenience store on Freedom Road.

Cranberry Township police on Friday arrested 29-year-old Ronell N. Somerville on charges she deliberately drove her four-door Chevy sedan into Katrice White on Jan. 25.

White, 30, of Pittsburgh was knocked to the pavement outside the Freedom Market and suffered seven broken bones in her feet.

Somerville was arraigned on felony charges of aggravated assault and aggravated assault by vehicle and a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment.

Police also cited her for driving with a suspended license and reckless driving.

She is in the Butler County Prison on $30,000 bail.

Employees told investigators that they saw Somerville and White together at the store. The two friends subsequently got into an argument that continued after they left the store.

They eventually got into the defendant's car in the parking lot, police said.

But apparently the fighting wasn't over, according to court documents. White got out of the passenger door and started walking away.

That's when Somerville allegedly accelerated out of a parking space and struck the victim.

Police noted that the suspected vehicular assault was captured on store surveillance video.

White told police that after being plowed over by the car, she got up and asked Somerville to take her to the hospital.

Somerville obliged, documents said. By the time officers got there, the women were gone.

Later, a physician's assistant at the UPMC Passavant Cranberry emergency room telephoned police to report tending to a vehicle crash victim.

The medical staffer told investigators that White was treated for six fractured bones in her left foot and another fractured bone in her right foot. She needed additional treatment for facial bruising.

Somerville's preliminary hearing is 9 a.m. Friday at the office of District Judge Dave Kovach in Cranberry.