Street racing event leads to injuries, arrests and talk of enforcement in Brookhaven

One person faces charges and another was injured during a street race at a Patchogue shopping center that appeared to spread to other Brookhaven neighborhoods overnight, police and officials said. the city.

Suffolk police said they broke up a “gathering of cars” around 1:15 a.m. Sunday at Gateway Plaza on Sunrise Highway.

Danya Northington, 19, of Roosevelt, was reportedly spotted by police “fleeing the area at a high rate of speed” and was located and arrested a short time later, police said. She was charged with third-degree unlawful flight from a police officer and reckless endangerment, both misdemeanors.

Another 19-year-old woman who had gathered to watch for cars in the parking lot was struck by one of the vehicles “doing donuts,” police said. Officers learned of the injury shortly after 3 a.m., when the woman went to a local hospital with what police described as “serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.”

Suffolk Police detectives are investigating whether the Patchogue event was related to motor vehicle incidents reported shortly afterward along Route 25A in Sound Beach and Miller Place, as well as on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley. Videos of the incidents on social media showed cars drifting, a technique in which a driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction, driving sideways while maintaining control around a corner.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico said that while individual drivers are sometimes caught illegally drifting onto public roads, what happened early Sunday appears to be part of a “night of chaos planned”.

“It was absurd,” said Panico, who added that several city council members learned overnight about the incidents in their communities. “I think (police and prosecutors) need to come down and come down hard on those who do this.”

Panico said a video posted to social media showed several cars drifting through an intersection at Miller Place, as several passersby looked on. He said the video showed the intersection blocked as an ambulance approached.

“It was the most infuriating video of all,” Panico said.

The supervisor said after speaking with county officials about the incidents Sunday, he was confident police had the means to investigate and track down the drivers shown in various videos posted online. He said he hoped the vehicles could be seized under the law.

“If it was just the incident in the parking lot, it’s bad enough,” Panico said. “But blocking major arterial intersections so ambulances can’t get through is just shocking.”

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