BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A grieving daughter is struggling to understand how a driver could leave the scene after fatally hitting her father in Birmingham.
On June 16, 84-year-old Erwin Ellis Curtis was struck by a vehicle at the intersection of 50th Street North and Messer Airport Parkway at 10:58 a.m. Birmingham Police Department states he was crossing the roadway in his wheelchair.
Curtis later died while receiving care at UAB Hospital on July 5. No one has turned themselves in connection to the case.
“He was just a good man, he was a good daddy," Curtis' daughter Deirdre Dawn said.
Despite suffering a stroke, Erwin's family said he enjoyed a good quality of life. He was independent, attended services at the Church of the Highlands and had his own place. He leaves behind three children and nine grandchildren.
Ilsa Curtis said she and her uncle Erwin spoke by phone every Sunday, but she received a phone call she’ll never forget on Father's Day.
“The officer said 'Ma’am he was just hit by a car,'" Ilsa said. "I had to calm myself down."
She insisted her uncle be taken to UAB Hospital by ambulance.
“He had a traumatic brain injury with bleeding in three spots,” she noted. “They sedated him and put him in a coma.”
BPD is currently investigating Curtis' death as a hit-and-run fatality but his family says they just want answers.
“How a person can hit someone and keep going?” Deirdre said “Didn’t stop to look, turn around? I mean, I just don’t understand that. It's so sad and hurtful, very hurtful.”
Deirdre recalled her favorite memory of her dad was when she was pregnant with her first son.
“I remember he would get up every morning and cook breakfast for me, every morning,” she noted.
Now she and other family members want whoever was behind the wheel that morning to do the right thing.
“We just want justice, that’s it,” Ilsa said. “We want whoever did this to come forward and face it. Accidents happen, we understand that, but the fact that you left the scene, this is an elderly man."
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.