Christine Armario
Newsday
Melville, N.Y. --A rookie Suffolk County police officer due to start work today got some real-life crime-fighting experience this weekend when he witnessed a suspected drunken driver leaving the scene of an accident and chased him into the woods before back-up patrols arrived, police said.
Officer Anthony Napolitano was out with his parents in Ridge Saturday at about 5:35 p.m. when Steven Kowalski, of Farmingville, suddenly made a U-turn in front of another vehicle on Route 25, police said.
Beverly Morris, of Riverhead, said she and her husband, Bernard, were heading eastbound in their 2005 Kia minivan behind Kowalski, traveling at about 35 to 45 miles per hour and didn’t have any time to stop before he turned.
The Morrises collided so hard into the left rear side of Kowalski’s 2003 Dodge pickup truck that an ambulance was called to the scene and transported the couple to the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead. They were treated and released, officials said. Kowalski failed a Breathalyzer test and was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident with injury, police said. He was arraigned yesterday in First District Court, Central Islip.
Kowalski could not be reached for comment.
Beverly Morris said that in the confusion, she didn’t see Kowalski running away. Her husband said he only briefly saw the man.
“He’s running through the bushes!” Bernard Morris recalled hearing some onlookers shouting as Kowalski disappeared from sight.
Napolitano, meanwhile, witnessed the crash and pulled over to see if he could help, Seventh Precinct Sgt. James Hintze said. That’s when Kowalski allegedly stumbled out of his car and ran into the woods, police said.
The police recruit, “switched modes right away and went into crime fighting mode, realizing that something must have been wrong,” Hintze said.
Napolitano, who had just graduated from the Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood on Friday, ran after Kowalski into the woods for about a minute, before the suspect heard the rookie announce that he was a police officer and surrendered to arrest, Hintze said.
Seventh Precinct patrol officers out on a nearby assignment arrived a few minutes later, after Napolitano’s father called 911, police said.
Morris, meanwhile, said that while she was still in pain from the bumps and bruises she and her husband received in the accident, she was happy to hear that an off-duty police officer hadn’t let Kowalski slip away.
“I’m relieved they caught him,” she said.
Napolitano will start work in Suffolk’s Fourth Precinct in Hauppauge today. Hintze commended the officer for chasing after Kowalski.
Napolitano did not have his gun at the time of the pursuit.
“You never know when you’re going to be put in a position where you’ve got to act,” Hintze said. “He learned that before he even started.”
Copyright (c) 2007, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.