A Long Island driver accused of crashing into a local nail salon, killing four people, was drunk when he crashed into a mailbox and lost consciousness behind the wheel, records show.
Steven Schwalli, 64, awaiting arraignment in Friday’s fatal crash at Hawaii Nail & Spa that killed NYPD officer Emilia Renhack, was arrested March 25, 2013, in Dix Hills on a charge of drunk driving, according to records reviewed by The New York Post.
“The defendant struck a mailbox in front of 19 Weathervane Way and fled the scene,” the police report on the earlier incident states. “The defendant was located a short distance away at the intersection of Millett Street and Village Drive West.
“The defendant was still in the driver’s seat,” the report states. “The car keys were still in the ignition, the vehicle engine was running, and the defendant was asleep.”
Schwary pleaded guilty in the case and received three years’ probation, records show.
Police say he was allegedly driving drunk again on Friday when he crashed his car into a nail salon, killing and injuring more than a dozen people, including a 12-year-old girl.
Ms Ren Hak, 30, had gone to a nail salon for a fellow officer’s wedding later that day when she and three others – Zhenkai Chen, 37, Yang Xu, 41, and Meiji Zhang, 50 – were killed.
Lenhack joined the police force in 2018 and married fellow officer Carl Lenhack in September.
Schwallis was injured in the crash and taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, but was released from the hospital on Monday and appeared under police escort in Suffolk County Court to face the new charges.
He was charged with DUI and is expected to face additional charges.
Meanwhile, the nail salon became a rallying point for grieving locals, who flooded the scene with flowers and candles, turning it into a community memorial.
According to court documents, Schwary has had at least one run-in with police in Suffolk County and was accused of talking on a cellphone while driving in Dix Hills in 2001.
