1 dead, 1 hurt in car-chase crash

A young man died and a woman was hospitalized when a 5-mile car chase ended in a fatal crash in Long Island early Tuesday, officials said.

Police arrested driver Dana King Jr., 23, of Valley Stream, who sparked the chase following an earlier argument, and charged him with second degree manslaughter.

The Audi driven by King was chasing a BMW on Baldwin Road in Valley Stream just after midnight when the Audi rear-ended the BMW, sending it into a fire hydrant and then spinning into a nearby tree, officials said. The driver of the Audi then lost control and struck a parked taxi.

First responders pulled a 21-year-old woman from the passenger seat of the wrecked BMW. She was taken to a local hospital where she was in critical but stable condition. The 22-yearold man driving the BMW died at the scene. Their names were not immediately disclosed.

King was taken to a local hospital with nonlife threatening injuries.

Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, commander of the Nassau police homicide squad, said the circumstances leading up to the crash were “super-reckless.”

“It appears they were driving at an excessive rate of speed northbound on Baldwin Road,” Fitzpatrick said during a press conference at the scene of the crash. “At some point … the Audi strikes the BMW from behind, causing that vehicle to lose control.”

Police on Tuesday were still trying to determine what sparked the chase.