Police ID Women Hurt, Driver Charged in Crash Into East Farmingdale Panera

A 69-year-old man driving with a suspended license crashed into the storefront of the East Farmingdale Panera Thursday morning while fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run, leaving one woman who had been dining inside the restaurant seriously hurt, authorities said.

According to police, Jerome Arnold, of Farmingdale, was driving his 2005 Nissan Pathfinder westbound through the parking lot of Walmart, located in the Republic Plaza shopping center on Route 110, when he crashed the SUV into another vehicle and fled the scene at 10:20 a.m.

Arnold then struck a parked vehicle in the nearby parking lot of Panera and subsequently drove through the east side of the restaurant and into the dining room of the sandwich chain, police said.

The SUV struck two woman who were eating together inside the Panera, police said. Ragen Ryan, 34, of Massapequa, became pinned under the Pathfinder and needed to be extricated by East Farmingdale firefighters. She was transported via Suffolk County Police helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital where she is hospitalized in serious condition with multiple fractures.

The other patron, Marianne Turndahl, 37, of Rockville Centre, was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, where she is in stable condition.

“First we were working and then all of a sudden you hear, ‘Boom, boom boom,’ and then you see the walls are collapsing,” a Panera employee told NBC of the crash.

Arnold and a passenger were treated and released from the hospital for minor injuries.

Arnold was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident and third degree aggravated unlicensed operator for driving with a suspended license, police said. He will be arraigned at a later date.

Photo 1: Facebook/East Farmingdale Volunteer Fire Company Inc.

Photo 2: Jerome Arnold/SCPD

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