Steven Schwally indicted on murder charges in Deer Park nail salon crash that killed 4, sources say

The alleged drunken driver who crashed into a Deer Park nail salon on a busy Friday afternoon last month, killing three employees and a customer, has been indicted on murder charges, sources told Newsday.

Steven Schwally, 64, will be arraigned Thursday in Riverhead on a grand jury indictment that includes four counts of second-degree murder as the top charge, sources said. The indictment remains under seal and other possible charges were not disclosed Monday.

A spokesperson with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office could not be reached for comment. Schwally's attorney, Matthew Hereth, of the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, declined to comment.

'Bodies were everywhere'

Prosecutors previously said that at 4:32 p.m. on June 28, Schwally had a blood alcohol content of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08, when he drove his 2020 Chevrolet Traverse at high speed through the front entrance of Hawaii Nail & Spa on Grand Boulevard.

"It looked like a bomb had gone off," Assistant District Attorney Alexander Bopp told the court at Schwally's initial arraignment on July 1. "Bodies were everywhere. Several individuals, including two of the deceased, had to be removed from under [Schwally's] vehicle."

An off-duty NYPD officer, Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park, was killed, along with the salon's co-owner, Jiancai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens. Salon employees Yan Xu, 41, and Meizi Zhang, 50, both residents of Flushing, Queens, also died in the crash. Nine others, including a child, were injured.

Prosecutors have said Schwally, a retiree who previously worked for a private security firm, drove his Traverse around an adjacent shopping center parking lot filled with pedestrians and vehicles before circling around a Kohl’s and Stop & Shop and positioning the SUV southbound.

Schwally then accelerated in the opposite lane of traffic in the parking lot, nearly striking customers and vehicles before the Traverse crossed over Grand Boulevard, prosecutors have said.

Some salon customers were receiving treatments while others were waiting on a bench near the window as Schwally's SUV speeded toward them, prosecutors said.

Slurred speech, bloodshot eyes

Schwally, who had been scheduled for a conference in First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday, has remained in custody after pleading not guilty to an initial charge of driving while intoxicated. Bopp had said prosecutors hoped to conclude a grand jury presentation by last Thursday.

Schwally told police he drank 18 beers the night before the crash but had stopped drinking about 12 hours earlier, prosecutors previously said. After the crash, Schwally’s speech was slurred, his eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelled like alcohol, police said in a criminal complaint.

At Rennhack’s July 7 funeral, her brother, Karol Kowalczyk, described his sister, who married NYPD Det. Carl Rennhack last year, as "one of the toughest, strongest and hardest-working people I have ever known."

New York City Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry told reporters following a July 19 court appearance that Emilia Rennhack was a five-year NYPD veteran who spoke multiple languages and was seen as a rising star in the department.

Families devastated

"The way this happened," Hendry said, "the way this person decided to get behind the wheel, driving with alcohol and then driving through that nail salon, it is just devastating. It is devastating to all these families."

Chen’s brother, Steven Chen, told reporters after court on July 19 that Schwally should go to jail "forever."

"This is hard, it is just very hard for our family, it’s very hard," Chen said.

Assemb. Ron Kim (D-Flushing) delivered a eulogy at the July 20 funeral of Xu.

"She was a wife. She was a daughter. She was one of us in this community," he told mourners. "Just like many in our community, we all come here as immigrants. We work hard."

A Legal Aid attorney described Schwally at his previous arraignment as a Marine veteran who has lived in Suffolk for 50 years, including four decades in a family home on Millet Street in Dix Hills that was sold following the deaths of his parents. Prosecutors said Schwally had been living in hotels for more than a year and was staying at the Commack Motor Inn on the day of the crash.

Court records show Schwally previously pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, after striking a mailbox in his former Dix Hills neighborhood in 2014. He received probation and paid a $500 fine, with his license being temporarily suspended on June 27, 2014 — 10 years and one day before the Deer Park crash.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.