Sheriff: Men Charged In Hit-And-Run In U.S. Illegally

CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chipp Bailey said two men charged in a Wednesday night hit-and-run crash that injured a child are in the country illegally.

Juan Lopez, 30, is charged with felony hit-and-run after police said he hit a 6-year-old boy, who was riding a bike across North Sharon Amity Road at Kimmerly Glen Lane. Passenger Rogelio Islas, 30, is charged with misdemeanor failure to give information or assistance.

VIDEO: 6-Year-Old Boy Injured In Hit-And-Run

Renata Underwood said she saw the child in the road and heard people yelling.

"They were just screaming, ‘They hit him and ran,'" Underwood said.

The boy suffered a broken leg and cuts to his face. He was taken to Carolinas Medical Center for treatment and is in stable condition.

Another witness to the crash gave police a description of the vehicle and its license plate number. Officers stopped Lopez a short time later.

Both men have been in jail before, Bailey said. Lopez was arrested for driving without a license in 2002, but was not deported. Islas has been arrested twice before and charged with DWI, cocaine possession, breaking open container laws and reckless driving. He was deported but has since returned. Bailey said Islas has gone by three different names.

Bailey said he sees cases like this one often.

"We even have them tell us sometimes when they get on the bus to leave -- the (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) bus – that, ‘We'll see you in a few weeks,'" Bailey said.

Whether Lopez and Islas post bond will determine when they are turned over to immigration agents. If they don't make bond, Bailey said, they will go through the U.S. court system.

"I prefer for them to stand trial for what they have done in this country, and then let immigration (and) customs enforcement deal with them for what they did with regard to entering the country," Bailey said.

Lopez's bond was set at $8,000. Islas' bond is $2,000.

Since May 2006, the sheriff's office said there have been 14,711 inmates who were not U.S. citizens. Of those, 9,493 were up for deportation, and of those, 822 came back to the U.S. after being deported and were caught again.

WSOC