Victim urged forum to ‘note red flags, they only get worse’

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

TWO years after a video of Petra Curry’s boyfriend running her over with his car while she held their daughter went viral, Ms Curry said she and her children are still suffering the consequences of the attempted murder –– and her abuser is allegedly still contacting her from jail. 

Ray Sands, 34, beat and ran over Ms Curry with his car on Key West Street on November 15, 2021.

The disturbing video of the attack sparked calls to address violence against women and children.

After being charged with attempted murder, Sands accepted a plea deal to spend 15 years in jail.

In commemoration of International Day of Families, the Ministry of Social Services, Information and Broadcasting held a forum on ZNS on Wednesday in which Ms Curry and other domestic violence victims spoke about their experiences. 

During the forum, Ms Curry urged other victims to note red flags because they “never change; they only get worse”.

“I blame myself because I feel as if I stayed in a relationship that was dead from the beginning,” she said. 

“And every time he abused me, he kept saying he would not do it anymore, and it got worse. Even his mother encouraged me to leave him, and I did not leave him.”  

Sands reportedly went to Ms Curry’s home to speak with her. After an argument, he head-butted the woman and dragged her onto the road, pulling her hair while she held their one-year-old daughter. 

After onlookers separated the two, Sands entered his Nissan Note and ran Ms Curry over before crashing into a wall. Ms Curry suffered road rash and multiple broken bones and ribs. She was bedridden for four months. 

Ms Curry said she does not remember anything about the incident, but she was told about it while she was in the hospital two weeks later. She saw the videos when she was released, more than four weeks after the attack.

“The only question I had was why,” she said. “Why did he do this? Why it happened? Why me? Why do so much bad things keep happening? What have I done for him to keep constantly hurting me and doing things to me over and over?” 

Ms Curry said she was repeatedly a victim of domestic abuse during the couple’s three-year relationship. 

She recalled one of many alleged incidents: on June 28, 2020, three weeks after giving birth to their daughter, he accused her of failing to interact with him. 

She said he stabbed her three times with a pair of scissors, causing wounds to her back and neck. 

“The court gave him a fine of $800 or spend three months in prison,” she said.

“After the fine was paid, he was released from prison. He called and said he wanted to be in his daughter’s life. He promised that he was going to change, and I made back up with him, and things got worse and worse every time.” 

Ms Curry said the plea deal Sands got was “a slap in the face”.

“The court system failed from the beginning,” she said. “They should have never offered him a plea deal. 

“My niece was almost injured. If she didn’t jump, she would have gotten hit as well, and they dropped the charge against my niece because she wasn’t physically hit by the vehicle, so the court system failed from the beginning.”

Ms Curry said Sands continually contacts her from jail, adding: “That means he hasn’t gotten over it.” 

“He still is contact me. He still is call me. He still is Facebook message me from jail. 

“The first time he actually messaged me was three days after the accident happened. November 18, 2021, he messaged me. 

“He pretended to be a customer because I sell little children’s clothing, and he messaged asking if there is any new stock, and I said, no I’m in the hospital. 

“Then a couple of days later, he messages again off the same number and he was like, he tired of pretending of being a customer, this him and he sorry for what he did and all of this and all of that.”

Recalling another instance, she said: “He contacted me two days before he went to court.”

“He told me to go to the court, make an affidavit, and tell them that I want to drop the charges so he can be released.”  National Security Minister Wayne Munroe acknowledged that contraband is repeatedly found in the cells of prisoners as a result of corrupt correctional officers but said he could not speak to this specific incident.  Ms Curry said the car incident left her unemployed. Her children, including two girls and one boy, are still processing the trauma and are unable to receive therapy.

“Sometimes I feel as if I don’t know what I’ve done to be going in this survival mode,” she said. “I always have to protect my kids because I don’t know what’s going to happen to them, like only me one to fend for them.”

“I only want my kids to get the help they need, the treatment they need, because talking about the accident, my son still breaks down because my son and my daughter were there and still talk about it.”