By Elizabeth Sagarin
Police cite driver of car they were in with drunk driving
Two Oceanside teens are dead and the driver of the car in which they were riding was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after an accident in Baldwin just after midnight Saturday, police said.
Adam Stark, 19, and John Behan, 17, died of injuries received as passengers in a 1989 Honda Civic driven by Edward Perri of Oceanside that collided with a 1994 Oldsmobile driven by Wendy Shepherd of Massapequa.
Perri, 19, of 2450 Yorktown St., was arrested at the scene and taken to Nassau University Medical Center in Mineola, where he remained hospitalized earlier this week. Perri's arraignment on the drunk driving charge was pending.
Shepherd and an unnamed passenger in her car were taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside for treatment. Shepherd was diagnosed with cervical strain and discharged, a hospital spokesperson said, but the name and condition of the passenger were not released.
According to Det. Richard Brusa of the Fourth Precinct Homicide Squad, Perri and three passengers in his car were traveling eastbound on Merrick Road and making a left turn onto Grand Avenue when the collision with Shepherd's westbound car occurred.
Stark, a student at Johnson and Wales University in Connecticut, suffered from cardiac arrest with trauma and was pronounced dead on arrival by South Nassau hospital staff, police and hospital spokespeople said. Funeral services were Monday.
After being taken to Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, Behan, a student at New Horizons, an Oceanside alternative high school, died at 6:45 p.m. Monday of massive head injuries, according to a hospital spokesperson.
The third passenger in Perri's car, a male teen whose name was not released by police, also suffered extensive injuries to the head and body, according to a hospital spokesperson. He was said to be in critical but stable condition and hooked up to a ventilator at Mercy.
Memorial services for Behan are scheduled for 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Thursday, May 31 at Towers Funeral Home, 2681 Long Beach Road, Oceanside. Funeral service will be at 9:45 a.m. Friday, June 1 at St. Anthony's Church, 110 Anchor Ave., Oceanside.
