Police Search For Car That Hit 85-Year-Old Man In Melrose
MELROSE (CBS) – An elderly man was seriously injured by a hit and run driver in Melrose Monday morning.
"It seemed like he had a pretty bad broken ankle. He had a lot of lacerations on his face," said Dave Curran, who woke up to find 85-year-old Ed Bozzo bleeding profusely on Herbert Street, too dazed to know what happened to him. He's now at a Boston hospital with life-threatening injuries. Curran called 911.
"He was confused and obviously in shock so he didn't really know what happened to him," Curran said. "He said he fell and twisted his ankle but, it was much worse than that."
But Melrose Police say the evidence suggests Bozzo was run over by a hit and run driver. He was out for his early morning walk, when police say he was struck from behind and dragged.
"There is no way this person didn't know that they hit this man," said Melrose Police Chief Michael Lyle. "And they hit the man from behind. He never even saw it coming."
Neighbors heard a thud, but no one on the one way street saw the crash. Now police want the public to keep an eye out for a car that has damage to the right front of the vehicle, with possibly a broken headlight.
Bozzo is a Xaverian Brother and a longtime educator at Malden Catholic High School.
"The Malden Catholic community was saddened to learn today that Brother Ed Bozzo, C.F.X. was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. We are grateful to the Melrose Police Department and the community at large for their efforts to identify the driver. Right now we are focused on Brother Bozzo and are asking that everyone join us in praying for his full recovery," Headmaster Thomas Doherty III said in a statement.
"He gave up his life just to teach and enrich children's lives," Bozzo's neighbor, Eleanor Galvin told WBZ-TV.
