Hundreds at St. John the Baptist High pray for student injured in crash

Music filled a candlelit auditorium at St. John the Baptist High School on Monday night as more than 300 students, parents and community members prayed for the recovery of one of their own: a hospitalized 17-year-old senior who was behind the wheel of a 2025 Kia Seltos involved in a fatal collision Saturday morning.

Vincent Albrecht, the principal at the school in West Islip, said he and the community are “hoping that tonight … a miracle will happen and she will come back here to St. John to graduate in June.”

“Today we had guidance counselors available, extra priests available, we had our chapel open for prayer so that students could go in and pray throughout the day,” Albrecht said of the difficult school day. “Some of the students were supporting her by making these beautiful little bows … They were giving these out to everybody, kind of a way to show support for her internally. We’re doing a schoolwide dress down day tomorrow to raise funds for her family with all the medical expenses piling up.”

Just after 1 a.m. Saturday, Suffolk County police said Michael Desmond, 33, of Lindenhurst, drove a 2017 Kia sedan east on Railroad Avenue in West Babylon through a red light and collided with the Seltos traveling south on Great East Neck Road. Desmond was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Riley Goot, 18, of Babylon, one of the passengers in the Seltos, was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center  in West Islip, Suffolk police said. Goot was a graduate of West Babylon High School.

Two other passengers, both 18 and recent West Babylon High School graduates from Babylon, were also transported to Good Samaritan for treatment of serious injuries. An additional passenger, a 16-year-old from West Babylon who is a senior at St. Anthony's High School in Huntington, was transported to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore with serious injuries.

"All of us at St. Anthony's continue to pray for all involved in this tragic accident," read a statement from St. Anthony's Principal Brother David Anthony Migliorino. He added that the St. Anthony’s student “has undergone surgery and is currently hospitalized for his injuries.” Members of the St. Anthony’s community were also welcomed to Monday evening’s vigil, Albrecht said.

A spokesperson for the West Babylon school district declined to comment Monday afternoon.

Khalie Brennan, a 17-year-old senior at St. John, said she was “shocked” when she learned the news that her classmate was hurt following a football game Saturday.

“I just hope that she’s going to be OK and that they’ll all be OK,” Brennan said before entering the school Monday evening.

More than a dozen members of the St. John football team welcomed somber community members with electronic candles as they entered the school lobby ahead of the 7 p.m. prayer vigil. “Brotherhood,” the word across each player’s back atop their jersey number, was on display as teens embraced one another as they wept, wiped away tears and rested puffy faces atop each other's shoulders. Inside the auditorium, the sea of mourners knelt just as the Rev. Dominick Weigiel did before the altar on the stage. Candles in hand, they prayed as one.

Mother and son Maureen Mock and Brenden Mock, who graduated from St. John in 2024, did not know any of the teens involved in the crash directly, but felt it was important to attend the vigil.

“Being a mother, my heart goes out to her parents and friends and family,” Maureen Mock said. “We come in solidarity. We’ve come to say prayers.”