Hit-and-run driver claims he killed man to save a woman’s life
Man who says he witnessed a knife attack made split-second decision to stop the attacker with his car
The aftermath of a fatal split-second decision behind the wheel erupted in a bizarre altercation Thursday, between the grieving family of a dead man and the driver who says he ran him down to save another life.
Anthony James Kiss has been charged with manslaughter in the death of Dario Humberto Romero, who was struck and killed in the early hours of June 7 in west-end Toronto.
Kiss said Romero was chasing a woman on to the street with a knife, and that he drove into him to stop the attack.
Romero’s family confronted Kiss in the hallway prior to his court appearance Thursday, with Romero’s girlfriend Cecilia Tofalo telling him that Romero had a 12-year-old son. “You left him without a father!” Tofalo yelled at Kiss. “You killed an innocent person!” screamed a friend of Romero’s. “He was about to kill someone!” Kiss shouted back. Kiss, who has been out on bail and was accompanied by his mother, Carole, was escorted out of the courthouse by police after they broke up the argument.
“Of course we’re going to have an emotional outburst,” one of Romero’s sisters said after the verbal confrontation.
“My nephew is fatherless, we lost another sibling,” said Romero’s sister Paola, referring to a 1999 house fire that killed their sister Daniella. “We don’t know why (Kiss) did what he did.”
The case was put over until Aug. 3. Kiss, 31, also faces charges of impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death, over 80 mgs operation of a motor vehicle causing death, and failure to stop at scene of accident causing death.
“I had to make a quick decision to use my vehicle to stop him,” Kiss told the Star last month in a phone interview. “I didn’t want death, that’s why I was trying to do this, do what I did, to prevent death.”
Kiss was sitting in his car at a red light near Black Creek Dr. and Eglinton Ave. with his girlfriend, when he said he saw a man standing at a nearby bus stop pull a knife on a woman.
“I look back at the light, it’s still red, I look back at them, and by then the male had pulled a knife and went for the woman like three or four times, stabbed at her,” Kiss said.
Kiss, a father of four and a Wasaga Beach resident, attributes his actions that night to his training as a security guard.
“I’m observant, I look around, that’s how I am,” he said. “And I looked at him again then this guy just pulled out a knife, man, and just went right at her.”
He says he hasn’t talked to the woman and doesn’t know if she knew the man or what may have sparked the alleged attack.
“She was off to the side minding her own business with her arms crossed, just waiting for the bus,” he said.
His girlfriend, Michelle Adams, corroborated his account in a separate interview with the Star.
“I hear Anthony screaming like, ‘oh my God he’s stabbing her, he’s going to kill her,’ ” Adams said. “I looked over again and I realized that he was making stabbing motions towards her.”
‘I didn’t want death, that’s why I was trying to do this, to do what I did, to prevent death’
The woman then began to run across the street, both said. They could hear her screaming for help with the man trailing her, he said.
“Anthony’s still freaking out in the car at that moment and then all of a sudden the car just went flying towards him,” Adams said. “So he went towards the man and obviously hit him. The woman had made it to the median in between the two lanes.”
Romero, 37, died from the impact at the scene.
“He was a good guy, very family oriented . . . He would give you the last dollar in his pocket if he needed it,” said his brotherin-law, who did not want to be identified because of the nature of his work with children. “He was a father. He was a brother. He was an uncle,” said the brother-in-law. “He was an embedded individual in our family.”
The brother-in-law said that Romero suffered with mental illness, and was diagnosed with extreme paranoia, triggered from the trauma of losing his sister in the house fire in 1999.
Toronto police Det. Susan Gomes, the investigating officer on the case, has said she could not comment because the case is an “active investigation and further is currently before the courts.” A police news report issued at the time of the incident said a 59-year-old woman at the scene suffered injuries unrelated to the collision.
When reached by the Star, the woman said, “I cannot talk to you, I’m sorry.”
Kiss said he left the scene because he was panicking.
“I was straight shocked, I couldn’t believe what had just happened in front of my eyes,” Kiss said. “It was insane, I just witnessed some male pull out a knife and try to kill a woman right in front of me.”
He said police stopped them shortly af- ter on the highway as they were heading toward Barrie.
Kiss said he and his girlfriend were coming from a CKY concert and had hung out with the metal band in their tour bus afterwards.
He said he blew just above the legal limit.
“I wasn’t intoxicated; I had a few beers within eight hours that was it,” Kiss told the Star in an earlier interview on Facebook.
Kiss said he has had trouble sleeping, and that he has been crying constantly ever since the collision. He said he is now working with a mental-health professional. His girlfriend said some people don’t understand Kiss’s decision.
“There are a lot of people who are sending him messages saying that he was wrong and stuff,” Adams said. “But, I mean, who’s to say what they would have done, everyone would say ‘would have, could have’ until they’re in that position, right?”
Adams expressed sympathy for Romero’s family. “I’m hurting for his family because they lost someone too,” she said. “I want the family of the man who know that nobody meant to kill him, never meant for his life to end.
“I just hope that they know why it happened. And that they don’t just blame Anthony for attacking him for no reason or something.” A GoFundMe page was launched by a friend of Kiss last month with a goal of $30,000 to help fund Kiss’s legal and trauma counselling fees. So far it has raised $895.
“Right now, he looks like a monster,” Adams said. “It sucks that he did something that has messed him up so bad for someone and then is taking such bad backlash for it.”
“I want them to look at him as someone who risked his life to go to jail for a stranger.”