Vigil held for hit-and-run Clermont victim

OCOEE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - There was a vigil Friday night in Ocoee for a Clermont man killed by a hit-and-run driver earlier this week.  

The FHP is still trying to find the driver responsible for the death of Aaron Zacharias.

“He was loving, kind, caring, respectful, a giver,” said Neena Zacharias, who described her son, 26-year-old Aaron Zacharias.  

Friday night, family and friends gathered in an Ocoee parking lot where Aaron loved to hang out with friends to honor his memory.

They played music and lit candles. They also prayed and thanked God for the laughs and great memories Aaron gave them while he was alive.

Neena says, “He read his Bible ever day, always preaching about ‘Mom, you’re going to be OK. God is always with us.’”

The 26-year-old was walking home from a store in Clermont Sunday night, when an unknown vehicle struck him. The driver took off.   

State troopers think the vehicle involved might have recently been in the repair shop.

That’s because they found bondo repair putty at the scene on a piece of metal.

Aaron’s mom urges the driver to search his or her conscience.

She says, “You know what you did, and you wouldn’t want it to be your family.”

Friends say Aaron was always laughing and full of life.  

Mom says he went the extra mile to help others and now all of that is gone.

She cried as she told us, “I’ll never get to hold my son, to hug my son, kiss my son, hear my son tell me, 'Mom, I love you.' My son told me everyday, 'Mom, I love you.' I’ll never have that. He took it away. He, she, whatever.”
   
Aaron’s mom urges anyone who knows anything that can bring her family justice to please contact FHP as soon as possible.

She says, “This life is not promised to you. It could happen to you or me, and that people care enough to say this is what I saw.”