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A former police officer is pleading for the illegal immigrant who nearly killed her son in a hit-and-run on his 21st birthday to stop hiding and own up to his crime.
"I keep saying it doesn't go back to if you're legal or illegal or any of that stuff. It's not a race thing. It is not any of that. It's called being a decent human being," Sheena Carach, the mother of Zach Carach, who is still hospitalized, told Fox News Digital.
"It's about right and wrong. And if you hit someone, you stop. I mean, that's just what you do. It's inhumane not to stop. I don't care who you are. That makes you a monster."
Sheena Carach's life was altered May 19 while she and her family were visiting Nashville from Florida to celebrate her son's 21st birthday. After brunch and touring Music City, she said her son was struck by a speeding car while he was attempting to cross a street, and the driver sped away.
MANHUNT UNDERWAY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WANTED IN SERIOUS NASHVILLE HIT-AND-RUN
Tony Lopez-Infante, 32, of Venezuela, left, is suspected in a hit-and-run that injured Zach Carach, 21, right. (Metropolitan Nashville Police Department; Sheena Carach)
"I can say in that moment, my heart left my body," Carach recalled. "I mean, I can clearly see myself running in the video. I know that happened. I was there, but I don't know how I was even breathing because I immediately thought I had just saw my child be killed. I thought I had lost my child. I ran to him, and I just started praying."
Weeks after his near-death encounter, Nashville police announced the suspect wanted in the case was Tony Lopez-Infante, 32, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who remains at large.
WATCH: Video shows hit-and-run crash involving illegal suspect in Nashville
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Lopez-Infante entered the U.S. illegally in August 2023 and "has a final order of removal."
Along with the hit-and-run, police noted that Lopez-Infante has several outstanding warrants, including one in Williamson County for a probation violation for a theft arrest.
Police said the vehicle involved in the accident, a Mitsubishi Mirage, was returned by Lopez-Infante, with front-end damage, to a rental business in Mt. Juliet May 19.
Homeland Security shared a post on X, stating, "The Biden Administration released this illegal alien into our country in 2023.
"This crime was preventable and is the direct result of open border policies that prioritized illegal aliens over the safety of American citizens."
"Officers located the car there the next day, on May 20. Investigation resulted in Lopez-Infante of Venezuela being identified as the hit-and-run driver," police said.
Carach said her son would "never have gotten hit" if Lopez-Infante would "not have been allowed to rent a vehicle illegally."
"He rented a car in February of this year that he had until he hit my son with no driver's license, with no insurance, without a major credit card on file. I mean, I wouldn't be able to walk into a business and do that," she said, after she ran her own investigation into her son's near-fatal crash.
"I have to be 25. I have to have a license. I have to have insurance. I have to have a major card to rent a vehicle, but he just did it. And he paid cash every week, $200 every single week to rent this car. So, knowingly driving without a license, knowingly driving without insurance and he was just allowed to do this. There's a lot of problems with that."
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HELD WITHOUT BAIL IN DEATH OF UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA STUDENT
Surveillance video shows a hit-and-run crash in Midtown Nashville that nearly killed the victim and the suspect allegedly fled. (FOX 17 News/MNPD)
Carach added that what was even more frustrating was Lopez-Infante showed no concern about hitting her son.
"You know what you did, and you don't care at all? And you haven't come forward. To even try to … not that you could make it right at this point, but to even say like, 'Hey, I'm sorry for what I did.' He has no remorse in my eyes. He's a monster," she said.
Carach said that her son will be using a wheelchair the next two months and is hopeful there is no permanent damage.
Tony Lopez-Infante, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is accused of a hit-and-run crash that involved his rental car when he allegedly struck a Florida tourist on his 21st birthday in Nashville. (Metropolitan Nashville Police Department)
"I will say it was a hard one for me when this first happened, and I didn't feel like things were going as they should go. And I will say … that I won't put that on the police department. I'll put that on the mayor and everything that's been brought to my attention," Carach explained.
She was referring to the backlash Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, a Democrat, has received.
U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said O'Connell "condemned ICE’s good work, promoted a fund to provide support dollars for illegal immigrants and their families in Nashville and even updated an executive order to fast-track the collection of all Nashville government employees’ interactions with ICE."
"It is indefensible that blue city mayors like Mayor O’Connell in Nashville have violated their oath of office by prioritizing illegal aliens over the law-abiding citizens they were elected to serve," Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital.
"The illegal alien wanted for a hit-and-run in Nashville that left a 21-year-old man wheelchair-bound is exactly the type of person the mayor is protecting. Mayors across the country have a choice: help get these people off our streets or jeopardize the safety of their residents."
O'Connell declined to comment to Fox News Digital.
Law enforcement officials said that federal partners, including Homeland Security Investigations, are helping in the ongoing efforts to locate Lopez-Infante.
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"For us, this has just been an ongoing nightmare. To know that this guy, that we've seen his face, we know who he is, he's out there walking around free and then every single day we're sitting by our son's hospital bed," Carach said. "So, for us, it's kind of a little bit freeing, I guess, that you know they have now finally released his face to the public, and we can have that extra help in finding him."
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected]
