Nelson Gonzalez, of Brentwood man, dies after being hit by alleged drunken driver

A Brentwood man who was struck by an alleged drunken driver last month has died from his injuries, Suffolk County police and his family said.

Nelson Gonzalez, 63, died Monday at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, where he had been in a medically induced coma since the Dec. 26 collision, Nitsa Castro Gonzalez, his sister-in-law, told Newsday in a phone interview Wednesday.

"He wasn’t getting oxygen to his brain," Castro Gonzalez said through tears. "It was either let him die slowly, because he was dying, or pull the plug, and we didn’t want him to suffer."

Gonzalez was heading south on Pinelawn Road in Melville and attempting to turn onto Express Drive South around 10 p.m. when his 2014 Toyota Tacoma was struck head-on by a northbound 2025 Mazda CX-70, Newsday previously reported. Both drivers had green lights, according to police.

Gonzalez was initially taken to Plainview Hospital before being transferred to North Shore in critical condition, according to police. His injuries included fractures to his neck and spine, as well as brain swelling, Castro Gonzalez previously told Newsday.

Suffolk police arrested and charged the Mazda driver, John Ankelman, 59, of Farmingdale, with driving while intoxicated, Newsday previously reported. Ankelman pleaded not guilty on Dec. 27 before Judge John J. Kelly in Central Islip. Kelly released him with non-monetary conditions. He is expected to return to court on Feb. 13.

No defense attorney was listed for Ankelman in online court records.

Gonzalez, who served in the Army and the National Guard and previously worked for Suffolk County, was leaving his job as a security guard in Melville when the crash occurred, Castro Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez was not married, and had an estranged son who flew to Long Island from Australia following his death, according to his sister-in-law. Castro Gonzalez, her husband, Louis Gonzalez, and his brothers, Paul, of Central Islip, John, of Fort Lauderdale, and sister, Jeanie Davidson, of Wyandanch, all gathered and prayed while Gonzalez remained in a coma. His fourth brother, David Gonzalez, died in a 1992 car crash.

"Nelson was the hard worker of the family," Castro Gonzalez said Wednesday. "He was the oldest. ... He was the one that took care of his siblings. He was always there for all of us."

Gonzalez’s family has not yet made funeral arrangements, she added, because "it happened so suddenly" and "it’s so expensive."