Heartbroken family members of the two 14-year-old boys who were killed by a drunk driver in a wrong-way drug-induced crash in Long Island blasted the man responsible for cutting their lives short as “evil” moments before he was hauled away to prison.
Hundreds of tearful friends and loved ones packed a Nassau County courtroom – and two overflow rooms – Friday as Amandeep Singh was sentenced to up to 25 years for the deaths of Roslyn Middle School eighth-graders Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein on May 3, 2023.
“Instead of picking up my son at school, I had to identify him at the morgue. It’s inhuman torture,” Drew’s father, Mitch Hassenbein, said in court – calling Singh “the definition of evil.”
“I’m a broken, bitter, angry man, filled with a dark side, and trying to navigate a foreign world. You ripped the heart out of our family. He gave my son a death sentence, and all of us a life sentence.”
Hassenbein was one of nine people who delivered victim impact statements – many of whom slammed the court for a punishment they felt wasn’t long enough.
Singh was driving at 95 miles per hour against traffic on North Broadway – which has a speed limit of 40 miles per hour – when he slammed his 2019 Dodge Ram into the Alfa Romeo Drew and Ethan were riding in with a 16- and 17-year-old boy.
The 36-year-old was drunk and high on cocaine with a blood alcohol content of .15 – nearly twice the legal limit – with cops recovering a bottle of tequila from his truck.
The married father of two later fled the scene and hid behind a dumpster at a nearby shopping center, where he was busted by cops. Prosecutors said Singh was so drunk he thought he was in New Jersey.
“Amandeep Singh is not a man, he’s a coward and he’s a murderer. He deserved a much worse sentence than he received,” said Zachary Sheena, one of the teens who survived the wreck that totaled the SUV.
“He never apologized once and took every chance possible to try and get out of trouble. He’s a selfish coward. Drew and Ethan will never be forgotten. They were the definition of perfect.”
Sheena, who now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, was behind the wheel of the smashed car. Drew and Ethan – seated on the right side in the front and back – took the brunt of the crash and were killed instantly.
The other two were injured in the crash.
Both of the slain boy’s mothers spoke through their tears as they expressed their “hate” for Singh.
“You stole my heart and soul,” Ethan’s mom, Lynn Falkowitz said, as Drew’s mother, Jaime Hassenbein, blamed the drunk driver for destroying her family and her son’s “bright future.”
“You took it all away, I hate you,” she said.
Singh pleaded guilty to a 15-count indictment in January that included manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, vehicular homicide, assault, driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident, among other counts.
Singh called the horrific wreck the epitome of stupidity and selfishness.
“This was all my fault,” he told the court, CBS News reported.
“Losing a child is the greatest grief. I have committed the great sin. If anyone should have died, it should have been me.”
