A 17-year-old boy was arrested Thursday and charged with killing three Staten Island teenagers in a horrific car crash that split his speeding Ford Mustang in half last summer, police announced.
After an “extensive investigation,” the unidentified teen was hit with manslaughter, recklessly causing serious injury with a weapon, reckless endangerment and recklessly causing physical injury charges.
He faces three accounts of each charge for the three young lives that were lost in the July 10, 2022, collision.
The 17-year-old — who only had a learner’s permit — was allegedly driving the muscle car at an “unsafe speed” through the borough’s Tottenville neighborhood.
Dramatic video caught the fatal moment the teen bolted through an intersection, crashing into a 2017 GMC Yukon trying to make a left turn.
The red Mustang’s passenger side slammed into a tree, causing it to split in two.
Both 15-year-old backseat passengers, Jesie Gil and Ashley Rodriguez, were killed after being thrown out of the car, cops said.
The front of the Mustang mounted the sidewalk and uprooted a small tree before striking a telephone pole and coming to a stop.
The front passenger, 16-year-old Fernanda Gil, was rushed to the hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.
The Gils were brother and sister, their family said. Rodriguez, the sister of an NYPD cop, was only a week away from her Sweet 16 celebration when she was killed.
The male driver was also taken to the hospital and was listed in critical, but stable condition.
The passengers in the Yukon — a 47-year-old man, 11-year-old girl, 19-year-old woman, a 44-year-old woman and a 23-year-old man — were taken to the same hospital with minor injuries.
It is unclear why it took nearly 10 months to charge the teenage driver, but police said it was due to an “extensive investigation.”
The Staten Island District Attorney did not immediately respond to questions about why the probe took so long.