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Man dies weeks after being struck by alleged drunk driver, fiancee says

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A driver is facing felony death by motor vehicle charges after the pedestrian he struck with his SUV earlier this month has died.

Police originally arrested Robert Pilot on Nov. 11 and charged him with DWI and felony hit-and-run. Officials said Pilot was driving an SUV when he hit 54-year-old Michael Villasenor around 4 a.m. on Queen City Drive and took off.

Robert Pilot

(Robert Pilot)

Villasenor, who was visiting Charlotte from California, was rushed to the hospital but police said he died this past Saturday.

Villasenor’s fiancee, Michele Tucker, told Channel 9 reporter Elsa Gillis that he was trying to protect her when he was hit by the SUV.

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"He had told me to get up on the curb 'cause he didn't want me to get hit by a car," Tucker said. "I will dream about what I saw for the rest of my life. It just shouldn't have happened. Michael fought hard and he had no chance."

She said they were in Charlotte for a business trip and were in town just a few hours when the collision happened. They were supposed to have been married last weekend.

"I want to be Michael's voice. He has a 3 1/2-year-old son that won't know his father, he has a 23-year-old son. It is so easy not to do this, so easy not to get in that car," Tucker said.

Tucker said she and Villasenor work for Lyft and Uber in part to prevent the tragedy that took Villasenor's life.

"That's the reason we started our jobs, to keep somebody from killing somebody and we ended up exactly the way we didn't want it to be," Tucker said.

Tucker said she has seen people walking down the same roadway, Queen City Drive, since the crash and warns others to think twice before doing so.

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