Dispute leads to chase, deadly crash on Long Island
HEMPSTEAD, Nassau County (WABC) -- Authorities are investigating a deadly multi-vehicle crash on Long Island that apparently began as a dispute between acquaintances.
Police say the argument involved at least three people and began in Valley Stream, after which a 22-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman drove off in a BMW and were pursued by a 23-year-old man in an Audi.
"These people knew each other," Nassau County police Detective Lieutenant Stephen Fitzpatrick said. "They were having a fight prior to this, an argument, got into their vehicles and then started chasing each other."
The vehicles traveled eastbound on the Southern State Parkway before exiting northbound on Baldwin Road, where the Audi struck the rear of the BMW in the area of Acacia Avenue around midnight.
The BMW hit a fire hydrant and then a tree, while the Audi struck a taxi.
Fitzpatrick called the incident "super reckless."
The 22-year-old man driving the BMW, identified as Jimmy Hayes, of Hempstead, died at the scene. The female passenger was taken to hospital in critical condition.
"He was unconscious, he wasn't moving at all," said a witness named Brian, who didn't want to use his last name. "The guy in the Audi, he was coming back, he was trying to help them out. It was a sad moment."
The driver of the Audi, Dana King, Jr., of Valley Stream, was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with manslaughter.
King is a Nassau Community College basketball player who has no criminal record, his attorney said after court, but sources tell Eyewitness News he has two prior domestic incidents involving that female passenger, who is reportedly an ex-girlfriend.
It appears the taxi was unoccupied.
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