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The 36-year-old Roxbury dad went to his first-ever concert: Eladio Carrión at Madison Square Garden.
Having been suffering from PTSD and depression since he lost his job during the pandemic, Torres finally had something to be excited about.
And it was a great night, Torres said.
His only regret was becoming friendly after the show with the people who he said ended up costing him his right leg in a struggle for a high-powered assault rifle they used to rob him at the Roxbury Motel one week later, he said.
As of Saturday, Nov. 4, more than $2,000 had been raised for Torres on a GoFundMe launched by his brother, Xavier Martinez, to help offset medical costs.
Torres never suspected those people would harm him, he told Daily Voice from Morristown Medical Center, where he is in therapy and trying to keep a positive outlook.
In hindsight, he wishes he hadn't let anyone else into his circle, Torres said.
Torres had plans with one of the guys he met after the show to hangout and smoke together in his room at the Roxbury Motel on Oct. 18, he said. But the man called Torres at the last minute saying he couldn't make it, but someone he knew was going to come instead.
"I kind of got stuck in a predicament," Torres said. "I had to meet someone I didn’t really know."
Torres said the person he met after the show was outside the hotel in a car when another man and woman who he'd arrived with came to his hotel room, where he's been staying since losing his job and becoming homeless.
"He unzipped the bag and all I saw was an AR-15 high-powered rifle," Torres said. He pointed it at me. I was in shock."
The man demanded Torres hand over all of his personal belongings, to which he complied, and then the man handed off the rifle to the woman and shoved Torres into the bathroom, he said
"The woman took the safety off and starting lifting it up toward the bathroom. I didn't know if they would start shooting into the bathroom, or were just pointing it at me in case I did anything funny," he said.
"I wasn’t taking the chance, so fearing for my life, I got out the bathroom and got the gun."
Torres held the gun with the barrel facing downward as the pair punched and choked him. He came out black and blue, his face hardly recognizable.
"They were choking me out and I was still holding the gun," Torres said. "I guess because of the adrenaline of not wanting to get shot."
That's when the woman pulled the trigger.
"The explosion was so big it just destroyed my main artery," Torres said. "It took away all the tissue and muscle behind my leg and came out the other side of my calf.
"I had no feeling of my leg whatsoever. The hole was so big it was the size of my leg."
The two assailants ran out of the room, and Torres got up, dragged himself outside, and called for help. He says a neighbor called 9-1-1 and helped stop the bleeding until police and paramedics arrived.
Torres said a Roxbury officer may have saved his life in putting a tourniquet on the wound. If it wasn't for him, he may have bled out, the dad said.
Torres is set to receive a prosthetic leg sometime this winter, he said, and until then, he's doing his best to stay positive, citing his six children as his motivation to get better.
"I already suffer from massive depression disorder and PTSD, so it got to me," he told Daily Voice after physical therapy on Saturday, Nov. 4. "This just made it harder."
Torres' brother, Martinez, said he had been in the process of trying to get back on his feet when the robbery happened.
"Before this, he was very active in trying to better himself. He was in the process of trying to get an apartment, and I wanted to see him doing better," Martinez tells Daily Voice. "I wanted to see him get out of the hole he was in. This just caused a massive setback for him. It's devastating for the family."
But, Martinez said, his brother is handling things better than he would be.
"He's doing better than most people would," he said. "If it was me, I'd be worse off. And I admire that."
The Morris County Prosecutor's Office has not announced any arrests in the case.
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