Driver sought in hit-and-run crash caught on video that killed 81-year-old Navy veteran in Santa Ana

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- Police are looking for the driver who killed an 81-year-old Navy veteran in a hit-and-run crash in Santa Ana that was caught on surveillance video.

Although the moment of impact isn't clear in the footage, police say the video shows the moment a white Jeep Grand Cherokee drives up onto a center median, running over the man who family members have identified as Norman Kent.

"It's just really sad the way he died... like I said, he was getting ready to catch his bus, his last bus," said Mary Louise Kent, his wife of more than 60 years.

Kent says her husband walked with a cane and enjoyed taking the bus every once in a while.

Around 9:30 p.m. last Friday night, police say the Garden Grove resident was on his way home on McFadden Avenue near Harbour Boulevard when he was hit.

"(He) probably got to the middle of the street, stood on the median waiting for the traffic to go through because he walks really slow," his wife said.

After he was hit, his body was found in the roadway.

"Sadly you see people just drive by the victim, not paying attention to him. Eventually people realized that there's a human in the street," said Cpl. Anthony Bertagna with the Santa Police Department.

Paramedics arrived shortly after to try and save him but Kent was pronounced dead at the scene. Because all he had was his medication bottle for hip pain, the coroner couldn't identify him and classified him as a John Doe.

But his wife says he had a family -- five children, 19 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren who are all hoping the driver of the Jeep comes forward.

"It'd be closure for us, you know, to catch the person who did this terrible thing to an elderly man," Kent said.

Police are seeking any information that will help them locate the driver and the car, which they say will likely have damage to the undercarriage and possibly the front grill.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Santa Ana police at (714) 245-8216.