Fireworks incident, drowning, shark bite, and boat crash mar Long Island’s July 4 weekend

The toll from the holiday weekend comes into focus as state cops report the details of a Sunday night boating wreck in Sag Harbor Bay

Long Islanders have been back at work since Monday, but the fallout from a challenging July 4 holiday weekend is still coming into focus.

Between Friday and Sunday, there was a fireworks fatality, a serious fireworks injury, a child’s drowning, a shark bite, and a boat crash with eight passengers aboard.

A 37-year-old Central Islip man died Saturday night after a firework he was lighting exploded and struck him in the head, Suffolk Police said. Gabriel Ruiz-Urresto was at a backyard party at his home on East Sycamore Street when the blast happened. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

In a separate incident, a 45-year-old Fort Salonga man suffered serious injuries when a firework hit him in the face at Callahan’s Beach about 9 p.m. Saturday. Jerry DiMucci was rushed to Stony Brook University Hospital; cops said his injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

No arrests have been announced in either case, and detectives are asking anyone with information to come forward.

Out east, a 6-year-old Brooklyn girl drowned Saturday morning after being swept away by a current at a Southampton beach. Kiara Paolasin was with family near Sebonac Inlet Road when she went into the water to retrieve a stray sandal around 8 a.m. and was pulled from the shoreline into Sebonac Creek and out toward Great Peconic Bay.

A 16-year-old relative tried to reach the girl but couldn’t fight the current. A nearby kayaker pulled her from the water — she was unresponsive —and brought her to shore, where first responders were waiting.

She could not be revived. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office and Southampton Town Police are investigating.

At Jones Beach, a swimmer was bitten on the foot Friday by what officials believe was a shark — the first suspected shark bite of the season on Long Island. The man was taken to Nassau University Medical Center as a precaution after emergency workers found what appeared to be shark-tooth marks on the gash. Crowds still packed the Jones Beach shoreline for July 4 fireworks the next night.

And in Sag Harbor, a Southampton man was arrested after a boat he was operating struck a stone jetty in Sag Harbor Bay Sunday night, seriously injuring two of his eight passengers. State police said Peter Mangiameli, 57, docked the vessel after the 10 p.m. crash but left the scene while the injured passengers were being treated.

A broken rib, a leg fracture and a fractured vertebra were among the injuries to the two victims, police said. Mangiameli faces multiple charges, including second-degree assault, failing to report the accident and failing to provide identification, along with several violations of state navigation law. The investigation is ongoing, and state police are asking anyone who witnessed the crash to call 631.756.3300.

_{Top: Lt. Sean Reilly and Zachary Kochanowski, environmental conservation officers with the New York State Police, patrol for sharks in the ocean off of Robert Moses State Park in July 2022 (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson).}