Rockville Centre teen charged in fatal crash

A 19-year-old was killed in the early-morning hours of May 5 after the driver of a car in which he was riding lost control and slammed into a tree.

According to Nassau County Police Department detectives, Steven Barrere, also 19, a resident of Morris Avenue, was driving his 2000 Acura south on Brower Avenue when he struck a tree at the corner of Oxford Road shortly before 2:20 a.m. Rockville Centre P.D. officers who responded to the scene found Barrere and his front-seat passenger, Gerardo Alvarez-Garcia, unconscious. They called the village Fire Department for help in extricating them, and for an ambulance.

Alvarez-Garcia was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said that Barrere suffered multiple injuries and was taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital in critical condition. In a bedside arraignment later that day, he was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol.

As the Herald went to press on Tuesday, Barrere was still hospitalized and did not have an attorney, according to a spokesman for the Nassau County district attorney’s office.

Barrere and Alvarez-Garcia were friends and fellow competitors on Nassau Community College’s wrestling team. Police said that Alvarez-Garcia was living at Barrere’s house at the time of the accident. Barrere, a 2009 graduate of South Side High School, was a captain of its wrestling team.

“He was a nice boy,” said Jason Washington, South Side’s wrestling coach. “You try to teach them the dangers of drunk driving. Sometimes they never think this will happen to them.”

“Steven and his family are in our thoughts and prayers,” said South Side Principal Dr. Carol Burris.

George Germano, a fellow 2009 South Side graduate, said he had been friendly with Barrere when the two attended South Side Middle School.

“I feel bad,” Germano said of the incident. “He was a pretty good wrestler, and then later he got into mixed martial arts.”

Germano said he did not know Alvarez-Garcia, but had heard Barrere talk about him on at least one occasion.

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