Tragic News For Elderly Hit-And-Run Victim

Doctors say the victim of a hit-and-run that was caught on videotape and viewed by a national audience will never breathe again without a respirator.

Angel Arce Torres, who is at Hartford Hospital, also will never return home, a family member said.

Torres was paralyzed from the neck down in the May 30 incident. He was struck by one of two cars that crossed the center line.

Angel Arce, the son of 78-year-old Torres, said his father's lung collapsed and he developed pneumonia.

Though Torres has remained conscious and does not have brain damage, Arce told the Hartford Courant his father will require around-the-clock care for the rest of his life.

Arce said he refuses to watch the video depicting his father's accident and is only interested in seeing the driver brought to justice.

"We lost my father," Arce told the newspaper. "We might as well say they killed my father. Someone has to know something. Somebody has got to say something. This was a human being, not a dog, man. And even if it was a dog, you don't leave a dog laying in the street."

"The people who did this to my father: Come forward. Don't be a coward. Come forward. Face the consequences. Turn yourself in," he told the newspaper.

The chilling scene touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with the capital city's biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer have a moral compass."

Hartford officials say they received four cell phone calls within a minute of the incident. Police Chief Daryl Roberts initially said the city had lost its moral compass, noting that none of the witnesses appeared to come to Torres' aid.

"We have no regard for each other," Roberts said last week.