Deadly nail salon crash: Driver Steven Schwally was more than twice legal limit for intoxication, prosecutor says

The blood-alcohol level of the driver charged with crashing into a Deer Park nail salon and killing four people was more than twice the legal limit, a Suffolk County prosecutor said in court on Friday.

Assistant District Attorney Alexander Bopp told Judge Evan S. Tanenbaum during a hearing in Central Islip that Steven Schwally’s blood alcohol content was .17, more than twice the legal intoxication limit of .08.

Schwally, 64, told Suffolk police that he drank 18 beers the night before he drove his 2020 Chevrolet Traverse at a high speed into Hawaii Nail & Spa June 28 at 4:32 p.m. 

An off-duty NYPD officer, Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park, was killed, along with the shop’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 people were injured.

Schwally, who is homeless, did not appear in court on Friday and had been hospitalized after the crash. He pleaded not guilty on July 1 to driving while intoxicated. Bail was set at $1 million cash, $2 million bond or $5 million partially secured bond.

Prosecutors plan to present the case against Schwally to a grand jury to consider upgraded vehicular homicide charges on Thursday, Bopp said in court. Schwally is scheduled to return to court on July 30. Tanenbaum rejected a defense request to release Schwally on his own recognizance.

Schwally’s Legal Aid attorney did not return a request for comment.

"This is hard, it is just very hard for our family, it’s very hard," said Chen’s brother, Steven Chen, who said that there should be no bail and that Schwally should go to jail "forever."

Rennhack’s husband, NYPD Det. Carl Rennhack, attended Friday’s hearing but did not speak to reporters. Several uniformed NYPD officers also attended the hearing, along with New York City Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry and other union leaders.

Hendry said Emilia Rennhack, a five-year NYPD veteran, spoke multiple languages and was seen as a rising star in the department.

"We knew she was going to rise through the department in so many different ways," Hendry said. "The way this happened, 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."

Prosecutors said Schwally, a retiree who worked for a private security firm, drove his Traverse into a shopping center parking lot filled with pedestrians and cars on a busy Friday afternoon. Schwally circled around a Kohl’s and Stop & Shop, officials said, and then positioned his car southbound in front of the Stop & Shop.

Schwally accelerated the Traverse in the opposite lane of traffic in the parking lot, nearly striking customers and cars before crossing over Grand Boulevard. The vehicle went airborne, striking the curb before it continued to the salon. Customers receiving treatments sat inside the salon while others waited on a bench near the window while Schwally’s Traverse sped toward them, prosecutors have said.

Bopp said earlier this month that witnesses described the crash as a "violent explosion."

Prosecutors said Schwally had been living in hotels after his family home in Dix Hills was sold in 2022, following the deaths of his parents. He told police that he had stopped drinking about 12 hours before the crash.

Schwally’s speech was slurred, his eyes were bloodshot and his breath smelled like alcohol, police said in a criminal complaint.

According to legal records, Schwally pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, in 2014. He received probation and paid a $500 fine. His license had been temporarily suspended for 10 years and one day before the deadly crash.