High-Speed Chase Followed East Hampton Shooting; Driver Identified

All the parties involved in a shooting last Thursday night at a house in East Hampton have been identified, according to East Hampton Town Police Det. Lt. Chris Anderson. “There is no need for any public fear about an unknown shooter out there,” he stressed on Tuesday.

Det. Lt. Anderson declined to say anything more about the shooting of Frederic Stephens, 20, of East Hampton at about 8:30 p.m. last Thursday. “There is no further comment at this time, other than that the matter is still under investigation,” he said.

Mr. Stephens was shot once in the right arm and taken to Southampton Hospital by a driver who led police on what East Hampton Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen said was “a high-speed, dangerous pursuit that endangered many people” on the way to the emergency room entrance. Village Police on Tuesday identified the driver as Kimberly M. Delrio, 22, of Springs.

Mr. Stephens was taken from Southampton Hospital to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he underwent surgery for his injuries, according to a press release Town Police issued on Friday afternoon which said it had no further information about his condition. As of Tuesday, Mr. Stephens was no longer listed as a patient at Stony Brook.

According to Chief Larsen, on Thursday night a Village Police officer stopped a vehicle that was speeding near the American Gas station at the corner of Montauk Highway and Toilsome Lane. Mr. Stephens jumped out of the back of the car, the chief said, “and said he’d been shot.” The officer called an ambulance, but the car took off, heading west on Montauk Highway.

What ensued was a high-speed chase all the way to the hospital. “We didn’t know if we had a victim or a shooter,” Chief Larsen said. There were two females and two males in the car, he said, which traveled as fast as 80 miles an hour at times and passed other drivers on the right, with the whole pursuit captured on an “in-car” video camera by village police.

“It was very, very dangerous,” the chief said.

East Hampton Village Police alerted East Hampton Town Police, who joined the pursuit in Wainscott, Southampton Town Police, who joined near the Long Island Power Authority building in Bridgehampton, and Southampton Village Police, who joined near Southampton Hospital.

They all converged at the emergency room entrance at the hospital, where everyone in Mr. Stephens’s vehicle was “ordered out of the vehicle, on-the-ground searches were made, and everybody questioned by police,” according to Chief Larsen.

According to an East Hampton Village Police report on Tuesday, an officer had seen a white Hyundai Elantra speeding on Newtown Lane in East Hampton with the hazard lights on. It made a left onto Railroad Avenue, running a red light, then made a left onto Race Lane, where it went through a stop sign, according to the report. After failing to stop again at a stop sign on Toilsome Lane, the driver turned into the American Gas Station to avoid the traffic light at Montauk Highway, but was boxed in by another vehicle. Mr. Stephens exited the car with a red shirt wrapped around his arm and said, “I got shot,” according to the police report.

After he got back inside the vehicle and it took off, the report said, the car passed other vehicles on both sides of the road, went on the median, and ran other cars off Montauk Highway.

The report said that Mr. Stephens was able to walk into the emergency room and that the other three occupants of the car were taken into custody “for safety.” The officer was able to identify all four occupants of the vehicle, the report said.

Ms. Delrio was charged by East Hampton Village Police with reckless driving and fleeing the police, two misdemeanors, as well as with speeding and passing on the right, also running a red light in Southampton Village, according to the police report.

“We’re looking at bringing additional charges” after looking at the video, Chief Larsen said Friday.

By shortly before 10 p.m. last Thursday, East Hampton Town Police and New York State Police had established a crime scene in connection with the incident at the house on Springs-Fireplace Road and were using a canine unit to search the property. They were asking that members of the public with information about the case to call them at 537-6989.