LI CRIME BRIEFS

HEMPSTEAD / Charges in stabbing

A Hempstead woman has been charged with stabbing a man who punched her in the face, police said Monday.

Kristina Clarke, 31, of 82 Van Cott Ave. was arrested Saturday evening and charged with second-degree assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, Nassau County police said. She was arraigned Sunday in First District Court in Hempstead. Arraignment details were not available.

The identity of the victim, who is 47, was not disclosed. It also is not clear how seriously the victim was injured.

Nassau police said a knife was recovered at the scene.

Police said the incident occurred about 10:15 p.m. Saturday at Clarke's home on Van Cott Avenue. -- JOHN VALENTI

DIX HILLS / Crash victim, 24, dies

A 24-year-old Dix Hills man seriously injured in a car accident Sunday morning in Melville has died, Suffolk County police said Monday.

Devin Wolcott was injured when he lost control of the 2010 Hyundai Elantra he was driving and struck a tree on northbound Sweet Hollow Road at 4:15 a.m. The crash scene was about a half-mile south of Chichester Road, police said. Wolcott was taken to Huntington Hospital by the Melville Fire Department. He was pronounced dead Sunday night.

Police said speed appeared to be a factor in the crash, which occurred on the narrow, winding, one-lane, tree-lined road. Wolcott had to be extricated from the wreckage with heavy-rescue equipment by the Melville Fire Department. -- John Valenti

NORTH BABYLON / Chain-reaction car crash

A driver exiting Sunrise Highway Monday morning lost control of the car in North Babylon, striking a car parked in a driveway, and that car then hit two houses, Suffolk police said.

The driver, whose identity was not released by police, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip with nonlife-threatening injuries. The condition of the driver was not immediately known Monday.

Police said the accident occurred at 8:48 a.m. at the eastbound Sunrise Highway service road and Stream Street -- and occurred as the driver was exiting Sunrise at Exit 40.

Police said the driver lost control, crashed into a car parked in the driveway of a home, and that car then hit the house, spun around and hit an adjacent home.

No charges were filed.

-- JOHN VALENTI

INWOOD / Charges after house party

A Far Rockaway man was arrested and charged with weapons possession and reckless endangerment after he fired shots at the scene of a house party in Inwood early Sunday, police said Monday.

Dwight Stephenson, 21, of 65-04 Thursby Ave., was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of first-degree reckless endangerment and one count of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon after his arrest at the home on Henry Street at 2:20 a.m.

Nassau County police said officers responding to a call of shots fired found members of "a large house party" gathered in front of the home and said an investigation revealed that shots had been fired. Shell casings were found at the scene, police said. Police also said that Stephenson had been "observed" by a witness placing a handgun and rifle into his car -- and said that both weapons were recovered by officers.

No one was injured.

It was not clear how many shots were fired.

Stephenson was arraigned Monday in First District Court in Hempstead, but the outcome of that hearing wasn't available. -- JOHN VALENTI