Connecticut

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll by a hit-and-run driver and lies motionless on a busy city street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but appear to do nothing. One driver stops briefly but then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim before zipping away.

The chilling scene captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with the capital city's biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer have a moral compass."

"We have no regard for each other," said Chief Daryl Roberts, who on Wednesday released the video in hopes of making an arrest in the accident that left Angel Arce Torres in critical condition.

The hit-and-run took place in daylight last Friday at about 5:45 p.m. in a working-class neighborhood close to downtown in this city of 125,000.

In the video, Torres, a retired forklift operator, walks in the two-way street just blocks from the state Capitol after buying milk at a grocery. A tan Toyota and a dark Honda that is apparently chasing it veer across the center line, and Torres is struck by the Honda. Both cars then dart down a side street.

Nine cars pass Torres as a few people stare from the sidewalk. Some approach Torres, but no one gets any closer than a couple of yards and no one attempts to stop or divert traffic until a police cruiser responding to an unrelated call arrives on the scene after about a minute and a half.

"Like a dog they left him there," said a disgusted Jose Cordero, 37, who was with friends Thursday not far from where Torres was struck. Robert Luna, who works at a store nearby, said: "Nobody did nothing."

One witness, Bryant Hayre, told The Hartford Courant he didn't feel comfortable helping Torres, who he said was bleeding and conscious.

MERIDEN, Conn. - Two family friends accused of depriving a toddler of fluid for a week as punishment for bed-wetting appeared in court Wednesday to face charges in his death.

Police said 23-month-old Amari Jackson died of dehydration while Sharon Patterson and her brother Robert Patterson were caring for him in February.

Investigators said glasses around the house were laced with hot sauce to keep the boy from drinking.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Robert Patterson told police that the boy cried for his mother when he began staying with him and his sister, but "towards the end of his stay Amari was crying for something to drink."

Amari was pronounced dead at to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where medical records indicate that he "appeared wasted" and had "sunken eyes."

Sharon Patterson, 39, was charged with manslaughter, cruelty to persons and risk of injury to a minor. Her 31-year-old brother was charged with cruelty to persons and risk of injury to a minor.

Amari's mother, Sara Hicks, said she has been friends with Sharon Patterson's daughter since they were 8. She said Sharon Patterson offered to care for her son for about a week because she was sick with a fever and caring for her 8-month-old daughter.

Sharon Patterson told police she had been drinking and smoking marijuana the day before Amari died, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. She also told them she had previously lost custody of four children because of drug addiction. Attorneys said in court Wednesday that she has mental health issues.

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- Investigators say a father traveled more than 1,000 miles to Lake County to have sex with a seven-year-old girl and her mother, but it all turned out to be part of an Internet sex sting.

The man oversees a Hebrew school for young children and he's on the board of directors for a youth soccer league in Connecticut where he lives. Detectives said he confessed to everything before they brought him to the jail.

Lake County sheriff's detectives said 43-year-old Leonard Shuster caught a flight from Connecticut to Orlando International Airport. A deputy was waiting for him there and followed him as he made his way to Clermont.

Just before Shuster reached the home where he thought he was meeting a 32-year-old mother and her seven-year-old child, he was pulled over and arrested.

"From day one, the talk was exactly to what he wanted. It would not surprise me if he's actually done this before," said Det. Chris Loyko of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.

PLAINVILLE, Conn. -- A man drilled holes in a pit bull's head as punishment for biting his son, police in Plainville said.

According to Plainville police, Saverino Cruz, 32, drilled several holes in the dog's head using a power drill after the dog bit Cruz's 8-year-old son earlier in the day. Plainville police said two brothers are being charged in the incident.

Police said the chain of events unfolded on Sunday when Cruz's brother, Enrique, the owner of the dog, was watching his nephew, Nick.

Baby somehow got out of a cage in the basement and bit the 8-year-old in the arm. Nick was rushed to an area hospital and was released a short while later.

When officers got to the house, they found another dog -- a 4-month-old puppy, police said. Both dogs were malnourished, unlicensed and not vaccinated, police said.

A janitor at a women's clinic who purportedly ran a modeling agency was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting three teenage girls, including a 14-year-old allegedly raped while he claimed to be giving her an abortion.

Michael Britt told the 14-year-old, who feared she was pregnant, that he could perform an abortion using a cream, and sexually assaulted her under the guise of applying it, police said in court affidavits.

Lazenby was shot seven times, once in the arm and six times in the abdomen. A neighbor heard shots, came outside and called 911 as the 52-year-old grandfather lay in the grass of a nearby lawn thinking he might die.

When Lazenby came out of surgery hours later, he learned that he had suffered extensive damage — 29 holes in his colon and intestines, shattered bones in his arm. He would live, but he would never be able to digest food or produce insulin by himself.