By Sam Kmack
[email protected]
Updated October 26, 2025 5:34 pm
An alleged drunken driver struck and killed an e-bike rider in Melville early Saturday morning, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.
Jennifer Kirkpatrick, 24, was driving south on Bagatelle Road in a 2018 Subaru Forester just after 1 a.m. when she attempted to make a left turn onto eastbound Express Drive South and collided with Joseph Melendez, 28, of Wyandanch, who was riding a “Razor fly-wing e-bike” northbound, according to police.
Melendez was pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip. He leaves behind a 7-year-old son, Giovanni, and a large number of friends, according to his roommate and longtime friend Erik Mejia, who said Melendez was “like a brother to me.”
“He was a great guy. He did everything and anything he could for anybody,” Mejia told Newsday. “He just had a beautiful soul like that.”
Kirkpatrick was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. She was arraigned Sunday on an upgraded charge of driving while intoxicated, causing a fatality, prosecutors said. Kirkpatrick entered a not guilty plea and was released on her own recognizance, according to Kirkpatrick’s lawyer.
Melendez, originally from the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, moved to Long Island during middle school, Mejia said.
He worked as a landscaper and often rode his e-bike with friends who also had electric bikes and scooters, according to Mejia.
Kirkpatrick, who was treated for minor injuries at a hospital, is a single mother with no prior criminal history, her attorney, Michael Brown, said in a phone interview Sunday. And based on an early look at the accusations, Brown said, it appears that “the accident was not her fault.”
“She’s a single mother who’s very hard working and … we’re confident that she is going to be exonerated once a full and complete investigation is conducted,” he said.
Kirkpatrick’s next court date is set for Nov. 24.
