SLIDELL — A Mandeville woman was arrested after a hit-and-run incident in a parking lot left a coworker critically injured Sunday evening.
Just after 11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 7, paramedics arrived at the Greenbriar Community Care Center about a report of a woman who fell in the parking lot. They transported the victim to a nearby hospital, where her injuries and declining vitals were determined to be consistent with being struck by a vehicle, not a fall.
The hospital immediately notified Slidell Police about the situation.
Around 3 a.m. on Monday, Slidell Police detectives started their investigation and visited the Greenbriar Community Care Center to watch surveillance footage of the parking lot.
In the footage, investigators saw the female victim, identified as an employee of the care center, walking across the parking lot when she was “violently struck” by an SUV that was reversing “recklessly” through the parking lot, according to officials.
The driver of the vehicle was identified as 67-year-old Lillian Sellers of Mandeville, also an employee of Greenbriar Community Care Center. In the video, Sellers briefly gets out of the SUV, picks up a broken piece of the bumper and then goes into work. According to officials, Sellers told coworkers that a “woman fell in the parking lot” and needed help, but she did not render aid or call emergency personnel.
Staff members went outside to help the woman, not realizing the extent of her injuries or that she’d been hit by a vehicle, officials report.
Slidell Police officers arrested Sellers and charged her with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, hit and run driving causing serious bodily injury, negligent injuring, and obstruction of justice by tampering with evidence.
Officers did not initially think that Sellers intentionally struck the victim; however, they said that she was aware that she hit a person and allegedly removed evidence to cover her tracks. Several witnesses told officials that Sellers has driven erratically through the parking lot multiple times.
When officers questioned Sellers about her actions, she “just shrugged her shoulders and provided no explanation,” according to Slidell Police.
Sellers was booked into the Slidell City Jail and later transported to the St. Tammany Parish Jail.
The victim is currently listed in critical condition. The investigation is still ongoing.
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