By Christina Santucci
Police identified the four people, who authorities say were killed when a car plunged into Steinway Creek Friday night and became fully submerged in the Astoria waterway, as East Elmhurst residents.
Darius Fletcher, 21; Crystal Gravely, 19; Jaleel Feurtado, 20; and Jada Monique Butts, 19; all died after a Honda carrying five people struck a curb and rolled into the water, police said.
The unidentified driver escaped from car and was taken to Elmhurst Hospital in stable condition, authorities said.
Battalion 49 Chief James Jacobs said emergency responders raced to scene at the end of a dead end street near 19th Avenue and 37th Street a little after 10:30 p.m. after a 911 call came in about a car in the water with people trapped inside.
Emergency responders were unable to see the 2009 Honda Accord from land, so two members of Ladder 117 went into the water and spotted the vehicle soon afterward about 30 feet from the shore and eight feet under water, Jacobs said.
“The car was actually flipped on its roof. The roof was on the bottom of the creek,” Jacobs said.
Two rescue scuba teams – Rescue 3 and 4 – were called in and pulled the four passengers from the water in conjunction with Ladder 117, Jacobs said while speaking to reporters just after midnight Saturday.
Three of the passengers were taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where they were pronounced dead, and the fourth was brought to Mount Sinai Hospital Queens in Astoria, where he was pronounced dead, the NYPD said.
Fletcher’s aunt, Alicia Nation, said her nephew was in his senior year at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., and was studying public health. She broke into tears several times as she spoke about Fletcher, who she called a “loving kid,” and the other passengers.
“They were friends going out for a birthday. They were all good kids,” she said. “This is just a senseless tragedy.”
Fletcher grew up on 98th Street in East Elmhurst and knew the group from the neighborhood, his aunt said. Three of the victims lived on the same street, police said.
Nation believed the young people had gone out to dinner to celebrate Gravely’s birthday.
“I can’t believe I’m giving these type of statements,” she said.
The NYPD’s Highway Collision Investigation Squad was investigating the accident, officials said.
Reach managing editor Christina Santucci by e-mail at timesledgerphotos@gmail.com by phone at 718-260-4589.
