After a 64-year-old father of two was left to die in the street in a hit-and-run crash, a Hemet family is pleading with the public to help track down the person who struck him and took off.
Danny Silva came from a big family.
The retired painter was struck and killed Tuesday at the intersection of Florida Avenue at Mayflower Street, not far from his home, Hemet police confirmed.
"Oh my God, it's so painful," said his sister Silva Perez as she wept. "My brother was the best man... He was the kind of man who loved everybody."
Silva's sister said she had just spoken to him by phone right before the crash.
He told her he was walking home from dinner and was only a block away.
Moments later, at around 6 p.m., Silva tried to cross the street when witnesses said a white SUV slammed into him. The driver never stopped to see if he was OK.
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"It's really sad that people can actually do this and not have any remorse. He was just left there. You don't even do that if you run over a dog. You go back for them. How can they do that for a human life," his cousin Ofelia Saldana said.
Family members said Hemet police told them that they were able to get two different surveillance videos of the SUV leaving the area. Witnesses said the driver is a woman.
"Do I have hate for the woman? No, I don't know what was going on. I just don't think that she should have left him there," Saldana said.
