(Deer Park) A minivan crashed into a Long Island nail salon on Friday, killing four people and injuring nine others, a Suffolk County fire official said.
The vehicle stopped inside the Hawaii Nail & Spa store in Deer Park around 4:40 p.m.
All of those killed and injured were inside the lounge at the time, Lt. Kevin Heissenbuttel said.
It was not immediately clear whether the crash was accidental or intentional, Lt. Heissenbuttel said. Investigators are on site until late in the evening.
Photos from the scene showed a gaping hole in the front of the store, located in a shopping mall.
Eric Perez told Newsday that he was loading groceries into his car, opposite the scene of the accident, when he heard the sound of a car at high speed, then a noise that “sounded like a crash”.
“It was a sound I had never heard before,” he said.
As he and his wife left the parking lot, he said, he saw emergency crews evacuating victims from the scene.
“We saw the ambulance and the paramedics pulling out a body,” he testified. “And I saw two women who I think worked there being carried out on stretchers.”
Suffolk County police did not immediately respond to emailed requests for information.