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Driver Kills Teen, Grieving Mother Tells Him To "Rot In Hell"
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 3, 2010
Modified Dec 3, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 3, 2010
Modified Dec 3, 2010
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An 18-year-old honors student who graduated from a Queens magnet school was killed by an allegedly drunk driver on the Sunrise Highway near Amityville on Wednesday night, and the teen's devastated mother wants blood. At the arraignment of Kenneth Serwan, a 46-year-old computer database manager, the mother of Tynielle Silvera broke down in grief-filled rage. "Murderer! Murderer!" Yolanda Silvera screamed at the defendant. "You killed my child! Rot in hell!" Silvera repeated the cries before being led out by loved ones and court officers.
The Post reports that outside the courtroom, the grief-stricken mom was screaming and slamming her fists against walls, and told the tabloid, "He shouldn't even be arraigned. He should be hung." Serwan fatally struck Silvera around 8:30 as she was crossing Sunrise Highway at the crosswalk on her way home from tutoring a 13-year-old Bed-Stuy girl. As if this news couldn't get more heartbreaking, the girl tells the Post, "I learned so much from her. Last night, she taught me a new rule in math."
Serwan has a prior drunk-driving arrest from 1992, and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. Newsday reports (paywall) that he refused to take a breath test at the scene (which his lawyer denies) but later submitted to a blood alcohol test about 90 minutes after the accident. Police have not released the results. It's also unclear whether Serwan had the green light; there were witnesses to the crash, but it remains under investigation. (Serwan told officers "he was driving and didn't have enough time to avoid the pedestrian.") Newsday also reports that the Sunrise Highway was the second most deadly state road for pedestrians between 2006 and 2008, accounting for 10 deaths.
Tagged
accident
drunk driving
dwi
sunrise highway
Tynielle Silvera
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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