A family is seeking answers after they say a man who died after being involved in multiple crashes in Northeast Philadelphia’s Frankford neighborhood was also attacked.
The man – later identified as 53-year-old Francisco Rosario – was driving a 2008 Chevrolet pickup truck along the 4500 block of Castor Avenue on Tuesday, Dec. 2, shortly before 2:30 a.m. Police said he was driving the wrong way at the time and crashed into a tree before leaving the scene.
Surveillance video then shows Rosario crashing into seven parked cars along the 1200 block of Adams Avenue before once again leaving the scene, police said. He finally stopped at the corner of Kinsey and Tackawanna streets, according to officials.
Rosario then exited the pickup truck and appeared to try to walk away, police said. He then fell unconscious on the road. He was taken by responding medics to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:26 a.m. that morning.
Philadelphia police are looking into the possibility that Rosario was physically attacked after the car crashes. Video from a nearby bodega shows another car pulling up next to the pickup truck, multiple people getting out of the car and speaking with someone inside the pickup truck. The video then stops.
Rosario’s daughter, Elizabeth Rosario, told NBC10 she and her family saw other footage showing someone punching her father before his death. Police have not confirmed that but continue to investigate.
“I just don’t understand how it goes from a car crash to somebody putting their hands on someone,” Elizabeth Rosario said. “It was three people that got out of the car. But only that one person that put their hands on him and we just want that person to get caught.”