Alleged drunk driver who killed NYPD cop in nail salon crash drank 18 beers — as victim’s husband weeps in court: DA
An NYPD detective whose cop wife was killed when a car crashed through a Long Island nail salon wept in court Monday – as prosecutors revealed the suspected drunk driver downed 18 beers before the tragedy.
Det. Carl Rennhack was overcome with emotion in a Suffolk County courtroom and fellow NYPD cops comforted him as Steven Schwally was ordered held on $1 million bail on drunken driving charges in the crash that killed NYPD Police Officer Emilia Rennhack and three others at the Deer Park salon on Friday.
The newlywed couple met on the job and had only married in September.
“The defendant’s vehicle went through the intersection, went airborne, struck the curb in front of the Hawaii Nail & Spa, navigated through one empty parking spot and slammed through the Hawaiian Nail & Spa’s front window,” Suffolk County prosecutor Alexander Bopp said in court Monday.
“The defendant admitted to Suffolk County police detectives that he had consumed 18 beers the night before and indicated that he stopped drinking around 3 or 4 a.m.,” Bopp said.
Schwally, 64, is facing driving while intoxicated charges in the deadly crash but Bopp said the case is being presented to a grand jury, which is expected to bring more serious charges in the case.
Schwally, who is unemployed and living in transient hotels, is a veteran of the US Marine Corps and retired from a job at UPS, his lawyer said in court.
The accused drunk driver shook his head in court but did not speak as he sat in a wheelchair in blue hospital scrubs and faced Suffolk County Judge Bernard Cheng.
The Post reported Monday that Schwally was busted for an earlier drunken driving incident in 2013, when he slammed into a mailbox in Dix Hills, drove off and was nabbed asleep behind the wheel.
On Friday, Schwally was allegedly drunk again when cops say he drove into the nail salon and killed or injured more than a dozen people inside, including a 12-year-old girl.
Rennhack, 30, was having her nails done for a fellow cop’s wedding later in the day when she and the three others — Jiancai Chen, 37, Yan Xu, 41 and Meizi Zhang, 50 — were killed.
Chen, whose wife, Wen Jun Cheng was among the nine others injured, owned the nail salon, Newsday said in a report on Monday.
The couple has two young children, the outlet said.
Xu worked to help support her son, who has polio, and her mother, who has Alzheimer’s, back in China, Newsday said.
Emilia Rennhack, born Emilia Kowalczyk, was at the salon having her nails done for a fellow cop’s wedding later on Friday.
She graduated from International High School in Prospect Heights and went on to John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she played soccer for the school.
She joined New York’s Finest in 2018 and was most recently assigned to the 102nd Precinct in Queens.
NYPD union president Patrick Hendry said in a statement that her family now deserves justice.
“This individual’s horrible choices have shattered the lives and turned dozens of families upside down,” Hendry said. “He should not have been behind the wheel that day, and he should not be back on the streets ever again.”
