Long Island man charged in crash that killed 4 people at nail salon
A Long Island man was charged with driving while intoxicated after driving an SUV through a nail salon Friday afternoon, leaving four people dead and 10 injured, according to the Suffolk County police.
The driver, Steven Schwally, 64, crashed through the front window of Hawaii Nail and Spa in Deer Park, a hamlet in the town of Babylon, New York, around 4:30 p.m. Friday, police said. Police identified the people who were killed as Jiancai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens; Yan Xu, 41, of Flushing, Queens; Meizi Zhang, 50, also of Flushing; and Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park. They were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical workers.
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Rennhack was an off-duty Queens police officer. She had been a member of the police force for more than five years and served in the 102nd Precinct in central Queens. Her husband is a detective in the same precinct.
Schwally, from Dix Hills, New York, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening and was taken to a hospital in West Islip, New York.
He remained hospitalized Saturday evening. The nine other people injured included a 12-year-old girl, seven women and one man, according to police.
One of the people who was injured was taken by helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital to be treated at its trauma center, according to Mark Stone, a spokesperson for the Deer Park Fire Department. Others with injuries were taken to South Shore University Hospital and Good Samaritan University Hospital by ambulance. On Saturday, police said four people in addition to Schwally were still hospitalized with injuries that were serious but not life-threatening, and the rest had been discharged.
