Crime & Safety
Crimes Nearby: Cops Charge Driver in Eastport Fatal Hit-and-Run
Also: East Hampton Village police arrest a man who was wanted in Florida after he tried to steal a car.
The following information was supplied by the East End Police Departments and Suffolk County District Attorney's office. A criminal charge is only an accusation and does not indicate guilt.
• Suffolk County police said a local man was behind the wheel of the car that struck and killed 27-year-old Erika Strebel, and seriously injured her friend, three weeks ago.
Vehicular Crime Unit detectives charged Peter Torrillo, 48, of Eastport, with leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle crash, and leaving the scene of a serious injury incident, both felonies, on Monday. He will be held overnight at the Fourth Precinct and arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday.
SOUTHAMPTON
• A 2013 black convertible Porsche 911, worth $130,000, was reported stolen from Cold Spring Court on Nov. 23 at about 6:15 a.m. The owner said he may have heard the engine start and his car being driven away, even though he had the keys. The theft may have been caught on video surveillance, and police are still investigating. No word on whether it is directly linked to the string of car thefts from Westhampton to East Hampton that were reported over the summer.
NORTH FORK
• A man has been charged in a Greenport parking lot brawl that continued in the hospital emergency room last weekend, police said.
According to Southold Town Police, Hraklis C. Morris, 36, of Greenport, was arrested Sunday morning at 9:20 at police headquarters. Morris, police said, was arrested after an investigation regarding a brawl that allegedly broke out between three men in the Adams Street parking lot on Nov. 17 at 12:17 a.m. Morris and the victim were both injured in the altercation and taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital by friends, police said.
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Morris was charged with assault in the first degree, a felony, for causing serious physical injury by means of a knife to the 24-year-old Shelter Island victim, police said. At the hospital, the altercation heated up again; Morris allegedly then attacked a 33-year-old Southold resident in the emergency room at 12:31 a.m. He was charged with assault in the third degree, a felony, in connection to that incident.
Emergency room staff initially reported injuries sustained while trying to subdue Morris, but no charges have yet been brought with respect to those claims, police said. Morris was arraigned in Southold Town Justice Court early Sunday afternoon and was remanded without bail to the Suffolk County Correctional Facility. He is due back in Southold Justice Court later this week.
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• James G. Sbardella, a 33-year-old homeless man who is wanted in Florida for violating his parole, was arrested after he tried to steal a car in East Hampton Village on Nov. 21, Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen said on Friday.
Police were called to 10 Buell Lane Extension just after 8 p.m., where a man was in the process of trying to steal a car. The man had already fled when police arrived, but responding officers, with the help of the town police, established a perimeter. They called in a canine unit from the Riverhead Town police and a helicopter from Suffolk County police aviation to help locate him.
The search dog tracked the man 69 Buell Lane Extension, where Sbardella was found hiding and taken into custody.
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