SAN DIEGO -- A distraught family is calling for a police investigation after a North Park cancer patient dies with mysterious injuries.
“I just need some closure to find out why our dad left us so soon,” said Angela Gonzalez, choking back tears.
Last Tuesday, near the Von's on 30th street, a bus driver spotted Carlos Figueroa, 62, on the sidewalk and called an ambulance.
“Police say they found him under a tree,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says her father was rushed to the hospital with broken bones in his pelvis and internal bleeding. He also had bruises on his face, neck, arm and back.
The next day, the father of seven and grandfather of six passed away.
Figuerora, suffering from liver cancer had only been given a few months to live, and Gonzalez says losing that time with him is unbearable.
So is the feeling of not knowing what happened.
Gonzalez says she was told by the hospital that the bus driver may have seen her father, who lived nearby, hit against a fence, before falling onto the pavement.
“Even the doctors and nurses are saying that can't be possible,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says the injuries don't add up to a fall.
“To have bruises all over the body, it had to be something worse,” said Gonzalez.
That’s prompted Gonzalez to call for a police investigation.
Was it a hit and run? Or something else?
“He was everything to me and my sisters. He was so funny and always there for us. How can somebody do this? How can they leave somebody without a father?” asked Gonzalez.
Police are gathering details and haven't made a decision on an investigation.
10News is also trying to confirm results of an autopsy, which Gonzalez requested last week.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with funeral expenses.
