Funeral set for Emilia Rennhack, NYPD officer killed in crash; grief continues in Deer Park

Mourners joined hands Sunday outside the boarded-up Deer Park nail salon where, two days before, four people died and nine more were injured after an alleged drunken driver crashed through the business.

Others left behind continued the painful planning of memorials for the dead, which included an NYPD officer from Deer Park, a resident of Bayside, Queens, and two residents of Flushing, Queens.

“It’s devastating,” said Denise LoCicero, a Deer Park resident and longtime customer of the salon, who added a bouquet of pink flowers to an expanding makeshift memorial out front.

LoCicero and more than a half-dozen others joined hands in a prayer circle at the storefront Sunday morning as workers arrived to sweep away the shattered glass and debris that remained.

Another vigil is planned for the Grand Boulevard site at 7 p.m. Monday to memorialize those killed: Jiancai Chen, 37, of Bayside; Yan Xu, 41, and Meizi Zhang, 50, both of Flushing; and NYPD Officer Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park.

Officer's services set

“Please join us as we remember and honor the victims and survivors of the salon tragedy,” read signs posted at the shopping center about Monday's vigil.

Services for Rennhack, who was off duty from the NYPD and inside the salon at the time of the crash, are set to begin Friday, the New York City Police Benevolent Association announced.

Rennhack’s family, including her husband, NYPD Det. Carl Rennhack, will receive visitors from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9:30 p.m. Friday at New Hyde Park Funeral Home on Lakeville Road, a PBA spokesperson confirmed. A funeral service will be held at the same location at noon Saturday.

Services for the other three victims were not known. Attempts by Newsday to speak with family members at publicly listed addresses were unsuccessful Sunday.

Steven Schwally, 64, of Dix Hills, who allegedly drove his 2020 Chevy Traverse into the front of the salon about 4:30 p.m. on Friday, was charged with driving while intoxicated. Schwally was taken to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. He remained hospitalized Sunday, and a spokesperson with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said Schwally will be arraigned at a later date.

The nail salon is located in a strip mall, which is next to a traffic light and across from a Kohl's shopping center. Other businesses in the shopping center have reopened.

Police said Schwally drove “at a high rate of speed” through the parking lot in front of Kohl's and a Stop & Shop, then crossed Grand Boulevard and continued through the small parking lot in front of the salon, where he crashed through the front window.

Law enforcement officials on Sunday did not provide specifics on the rate of speed, or where Schwally had been before the crash.

Workers, customers trapped

The out-of-control vehicle trapped employees and customers inside, said Deer Park Fire Department Third Assistant Chief Dominic Albanese on Friday.

As she took in the scene Sunday, LoCicero picked up a scuffed-up photo and placed it upright. It showed five smiling workers, alongside a customer waving his hands. LoCicero placed her hands over her face.

She learned of the crash from her husband, Bob Dimisa. He had pulled into the parking lot Friday to pick up something from the liquor store next door when he saw the salon engulfed in smoke

“I thought a bomb had gone off,” Dimisa said Sunday.

He described hearing cries and moans from inside the shop afterward. Dimisa said he saw first responders enter the battered building and pull victims out.

United Way of Long Island, which is located across Grand Boulevard from the nail salon, is planning to offer help to surviving employees who no longer have a place to work, said Theresa Regnante, president and CEO of the nationwide nonprofit's Long Island office.

“We help families in distress,” she said Sunday, adding that some of her employees are customers of the salon. 

 Rennhack was an officer with the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill, Queens, where her husband also worked, police officials said. The couple married in September.

Born Emilia Kowalczyk, Rennhack began her service with the NYPD in January 2018, according to department records. She had served in the 102nd Precinct since May 2019. She made 165 arrests in her career and had recently completed training for stop-and-frisk encounters and how to handle people going through mental health crises, department records show.

Rennhack attended International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, according to the college’s website.

Tribute at precinct

Flowers, purple bunting and a photo of Rennhack were all visible inside the 102nd Precinct Sunday morning.

Police said four others were taken to hospitals for treatment of serious but not-life-threatening injuries: Nicole Miele, 54, of Dix Hills; Ana Garcia, 53, of Bay Shore; Michael Mehale, 58, of Deer Park; and Wen Jun Cheng, 35, of Bayside, Queens.

Five other people, including a 12-year-old girl, were treated at hospitals for less-serious injuries, police said.

Mehale, who was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, was upgraded to fair condition by Sunday, a hospital spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, where three of the injured were taken Friday, said that as of noon Sunday only one remained under the hospital's care. 

A spokesperson for Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, where the driver and five others were treated, said only that the hospital treated six patients related to the crash and otherwise declined to provide a status update. 

Records show Schwally pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, in April 2014, after he was arrested by Suffolk police in March 2013. Schwally received probation, his license was suspended and he was fined $500 in that case.