Fallen NYPD Officer Emilia Rennhack's 'smile could brighten the darkest of days,' her husband says 

It started as a quick, impromptu lunch between colleagues after staying late for early shifts at the 102nd Precinct in Queens. Eight hours later, it ended as a first date.

That’s how NYPD Det. Carl Rennhack remembers the day he began to fall for his soon-to-be wife, Emilia, a fellow officer in the precinct.

“When I left the restaurant, I was like, ‘No, I have to see her again,'” Rennhack recalled from the living room of his childhood home Tuesday, as he shared stories of the woman he called “the most amazing person.” “To be loved by someone as perfect as her is something I wish everyone in the world got to experience.”

Emilia Rennhack, 30, was off duty Friday when she was killed by an alleged drunken driver who crashed through the front window of a Deer Park nail salon, a wreck that also claimed the life of the spa’s co-owner and two employees. Nine others were injured.

Born Emilia Kowalczyk in a farming village in Poland, Rennhack was just shy of her 13th birthday when her family arrived in the United States and settled in Brooklyn nearly two decades ago.

Carl Rennhack, 32, who grew up in Deer Park, spoke of how his wife’s laughter could fill up a room and her “smile could brighten the darkest of days.” And he kept turning back to her intellect as he recalled their time together, pointing out the wall of books she kept and her accomplishments in school.

Despite having to learn a new language, Emilia skipped a grade in high school and finished her time at International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn as a top student before enrolling at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.

The dream was to one day work at the United Nations, but like so many John Jay graduates, she joined the ranks of the NYPD instead, moving to the 102nd Precinct in May 2019.

“I never saw two people so perfectly fitted for each other,” said fellow 102nd Squad Det. Derick Singh, among the tight-knit crew of friends who have been at Rennhack’s side as he mourns the loss of the woman he married last September in a ceremony at Giorgio’s in Baiting Hollow.

“He would tell us all about her all the time, talking about how happy he was and all the stuff they were doing,” Det. Chris Maisch said.

The stories Rennhack shared mostly consisted of simple pleasures, like time spent on the couch in their apartment watching Emilia’s favorite baking shows or the memories they made on trips together. Like so many Long Island couples, they spent much of their time outdoors, with Emilia tending to her backyard garden or doing yoga on the deck. Their beach drives and camping trips to Pennsylvania were cherished times.

Rennhack and his colleagues took notice of the way Emilia carried herself on the job, too. The work ethic she developed on her family’s dairy farm as a child carried over to her time on the force, the men said. Her compassion also made her stand out.

Rennhack started her career on overnight patrols before transitioning to a domestic violence unit in the precinct. The colleagues recalled her using her own time to check in on the children she grew to know through her work on that sensitive unit.

“She took that job very seriously,” Rennhack said. “She would stay there and make sure everyone was OK. We didn’t have kids, but those kids at work were like her own.”

Rennhack recalled stories his wife would tell of one girl she met on calls who marveled over her flashlight. The regular kids she encountered would receive gifts on their birthdays, Rennhack said.

One day, Emilia brought a stray dog back to the precinct. When no one came to claim her after two days, the dog came home to live with them.

Rennhack said the couple was working toward buying their first home before tragedy struck.

Suffolk police and prosecutors said Steven Schwally, 64, who is homeless, was on the far end of a parking lot across the street from the salon when he accelerated to a “high rate of speed" in the direction where Rennhack had gone for a nail appointment that afternoon. Schwally nearly struck several pedestrians in a crosswalk and drove around a car outside Stop & Shop and Kohl’s before barreling across Grand Boulevard, jumping a curb and driving straight through the salon, police and prosecutors said.

The crash also killed the shop’s co-owner, Jiancai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens, and employees Yan Xu, 41, and Meizi Zhang, 50, both of Flushing, Queens. Nine others, including a 12-year-old girl, were injured in the crash that rocked the Deer Park community. Rennhack said he was overwhelmed by the support neighbors have given him and the families of others impacted by the crash.

Schwally, who prosecutors say told police he drank 18 beers the night before the 4:32 p.m. crash, was charged with driving while intoxicated. He pleaded not guilty and is being housed at the Suffolk County Jail after not posting bail set at $1 million cash, $2 million bond or $5 million partially secured bond. Prosecutors are pursuing vehicular homicide charges against him, they said at his arraignment Monday.

Court records show Schwally, a retired security guard and former Marine who lived in his parents’ home in Dix Hills for four decades before it was sold last year, was previously arrested for drunken driving after he fell asleep behind the wheel in 2013.

Schwally crashed a 2005 GMC Envoy into a mailbox on Weathervane Way near Millet Street in Dix Hills on March 25, 2013, according to the criminal complaint in the earlier case. Police said they located Schwally's vehicle on the corner where he lived.

"[He] was still seated in the driver's seat, the vehicle's keys were still in the ignition," an arresting officer wrote at the time. "The vehicle's engine was on and the defendant was asleep."

Police also noted that Schwally's eyes were glassy and bloodshot, he had poor coordination and was unable to stand without assistance following the 6:54 p.m. crash, according to the complaint.

The case ended in a guilty plea, with Schwally having his license temporarily suspended on June 27, 2014, which a prosecutor noted is 10 years and one day before Friday's crash.

Rennhack declined to speak about Friday’s crash, but said it left a “hole in my heart” in a statement he shared with Newsday before his interview.

“My wife’s life wasn’t lost, it was taken,” Rennhack said. “But I know and have the utmost confidence in the Suffolk police officers, detectives and the district attorney’s office that they will get the justice we seek for my wife and the lives of the other victims.”

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.