Riverhead man charged, after more than a year, in 2025 Flanders hit-and-run that left 2 with injuries
The Southampton Town Police Department. Credit: Randee Daddona
A Riverhead man accused of fleeing from a 2025 crash that injured two people was arrested Thursday on vehicular assault and driving while intoxicated charges, police said.
Santiago Barreto-Gomez, 20, was charged with aggravated vehicular assault, first-degree vehicular assault, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury, and several other offenses, the Southampton Town Police Department said in a Thursday release.
On March 7, 2025, Barreto-Gomez was driving a 2020 Dodge Durango when he allegedly veered into the opposite lane at a high speed and hit a 2015 Subaru with two people inside on Oak Avenue just off Albany Street around 11 p.m., police and prosecutors said.
One person in the Subaru had a fractured leg, while the other person was left with a minor injury, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
Barreto-Gomez is accused of exiting the vehicle he was driving and was later found in a wooded area in the vicinity of the crash, prosecutors said. Barreto-Gomez, who allegedly refused to say he was behind the wheel, was not observed in the vehicle. But over the next year, a search warrant was secured to obtain his DNA on the vehicle's airbag, leading to his arrest, authorities said.
The Southampton Town Police Department arrested Barreto-Gomez with the help of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, the Suffolk police’s Fugitive Unit and Riverhead police, according to law enforcement.
Barreto-Gomez had turned himself in to police once he learned law enforcement was looking for him, prosecutors said.
A judge arraigned Barreto-Gomez on Thursday morning, giving him supervised release, prosecutors said. His driver's license was also suspended.
An attorney for Barreto-Gomez could not be immediately reached.
Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.
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