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Insets, clockwise from top left: Ethan Falkowitz, Drew Hassenbein and Amandeep Singh. Background: The crash scene (WABC).
A New York man who admitted to causing a wrong-way car crash fueled by tequila and cocaine that killed two teen tennis players on their way home from a team dinner celebration has learned his fate.
Amandeep Singh, 36, was sentenced to eight-and-a-third to 25 years in prison for the crash that killed Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein, both 14. Singh pleaded guilty last month to aggravated vehicular homicide and DWI.
Heartbroken family members reacted in court, local ABC affiliate WABC reported.
“Instead of picking up my son at school, I had to pick him up at the morgue, instead of watching him use his tennis racket like a magic wand, I had to bury it with him,” Hassenbein’s father, Mitch Hassenbein, told the judge. “He gave my son a death sentence and all of us a life sentence.”
Local CBS affiliate WCBS reported Gary Falkowitz, Ethan’s father, speaking out after the sentencing.
“This was avoidable. The state failed my son,” he said. “Nothing in life prepares you for losing a child. Ethan was filled with hope and optimism. He was every parent’s dream.”
In court, the defendant apologized, the outlet reported.
“This was all my fault. Losing a child is the greatest grief. I have committed the great sin. If anyone should have died, it should have been me,” he said.
The crash happened in Jericho on Long Island on May 3, 2023. Singh had been at bars drinking scotch and tequila and snorting cocaine before driving, Long Island Newsday reported.
In his Dodge Ram pickup truck, Singh drove south in the northbound lanes of North Broadway at high speeds before hitting a 2019 four-door Alfa Romeo carrying Drew, Ethan and two other boys, prosecutors said in a press release. Drew and Ethan were killed instantly. The two other boys were hospitalized and recovered from their injuries.
A second vehicle was hit, injuring two others who were treated at the scene and released.
Singh was found hiding near a dumpster in a parking lot of a shopping nearby. Police-worn body camera video captured the moments before he was put into an ambulance, taken to a hospital for a head wound and then arrested.
At one point in the video, he told officers, “So what if I [expletive] drink and drive … maybe I did.”
His blood alcohol level was reportedly 0.18 — more than twice the legal limit — at the time of the crash.
The boys were on their way home from a restaurant after a tennis event, Stephen Fitzpatrick of the Nassau County Police Department said.
Drew was ranked 38th in the United States for players under 14. The two were “amazing guys” and “best friends” who had played the sport since they were 5 years old, Jay Harris, their coach, told local NBC affiliate WNBC.
A GoFundMe for Drew said he and his teammates had been coming back from a tennis celebration for Roslyn High School.
The team was celebrating a victory where Drew won his match, the fundraiser said, noting that Drew was a nationally-ranked tennis player for 12-year-olds.
“Even though Drew was a nationally-ranked boys player, nothing meant more to him than being a part of the Roslyn tennis community and being with his friends,” the site said. “Our family is devastated by his loss and is so appreciative of the incredible outpouring of support and people’s desire to help.”
Drew’s family established the Drew Hassenbein Foundation, which exposes tennis to underprivileged children through lessons and scholarships and helps sponsor elite juniors.
Ethan’s family has likewise set up The Ethan Falkowitz Foundation.
“He sought happiness in making others happy,” a GoFundMe set up in his memory said. “Nothing was impossible. His outlook was filled with optimism and curiosity … He didn’t want to believe that there was ‘bad’ in the world. He stayed away from dangerous activities and could only be truly happy if those around him were happy. It is now our life’s mission to continue what Ethan started. One way or another, we will find a way out of this nightmare and make sure that Ethan’s legacy is cemented, not by his tragic death, but by his endless love for others.”