Joel Cairo for New York Daily News
Four people were killed in the crash, and a fifth was hospitalized with unknown injuries.
Rajaba attended Abraham Lincoln High School and "was a funny guy," lifelong friend Kevin Persaud, 17, said. "We grew up together. We used to make a lot of jokes, ride bikes, play games, have sleepovers together."
"This is a terrible tragedy," Persaud added. "I can't believe they're all dead."
Persaud was the among the dozens of students who made a pilgrimage to the crash site, where the mourners lit candles, left bouquets of flowers and shed tears for their lost friends.
Some handled the anguish better than others. One angry teenager, apparently furious with Beer, barked out, "Tell the driver I'm coming for him" before splitting.
Others respectfully collected sad mementos from the scene — eyeglasses, flip-flops, a single gym shoe — before leaving.
Beer, who like his buddies was also from Richmond Hill, should not have been at the wheel in the first place, police said.
Channel 2
Chris Khan, Neal Rajata, Darlan Ramnarine, and Peter Anthony were killed in a car accident on the Southern State Parkway on morning of Ocober 8, 2012.
Drivers with learner permits are prohibited from driving unless accompanied by a supervising driver, age 21 or older, who has a valid license, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
That stretch of the parkway is especially dangerous, according to Lakeview Fire Department Chief Heather Senti. She told the Wall Street Journal there had been two other single-vehicle crashes at the same spot Monday.
"Unfortunately, it has its own nickname of 'dead man's curve' because it comes up so quickly and it's such a sharp turn," Senti said.
Beer's family, immigrants from Guyana, were at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola and not reachable for comment.
Neighbor Shawn Hussani, 25, said Beer's "parents got him the car" after he enrolled early at St. John's University.
"He was smart," said Hussani. "We'd always see him studying."
Another neighbor, 19-year-old Dylan Harry, said Beer was a braniac who never got in trouble. "He's always been a straight-A student," he said.
Beer's former Spanish teacher had nothing but praise.
"He was a great student," said Sally Shabana. "He was sweetheart. I hope he pulls through."
It's not clear where Beer and his buddies were coming from, but they were heading westbound around 3:40 a.m. on the parkway when the Subaru suddenly roared off the highway and into some trees in Malverne, LI, police said.
"It sounded like an airplane crash," Michael Campos, who lives nearby, told WPIX television.
Campos said when he went out to investigate, he found a horror show.
"I saw four bodies on the floor and I went by the road, on the highway, and it was slippery," he said. "It was wet like it was just raining out."
Investigators later found backpacks, a standardized test prep manual and a video game.
Other witnesses reportedly saw a young man amid the wreckage right after the crash, using a cell phone to light his way in the gloom.
It was not clear if this was Beer. Immediately after the crash, the State Police closed the westbound lanes of the parkway between exits 17 and 19 and began rerouting traffic.
— With Oren Yaniv, Rachel Monahan, Edgar Sandoval and Jennifer H. Cunningham
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