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Queens Man’s Drunken Strip Club Visit Led To GF’s Death In Crash: DA

Ray Perez, 27, drank for hours at a strip club before a hit-and-run that left his girlfriend Bridget Enriquez, 29, dead, authorities said.

A Queens man faces a manslaughter charge in his girlfriend's death, prosecutors said.
A Queens man faces a manslaughter charge in his girlfriend’s death, prosecutors said. (Shutterstock)
QUEENS, NY — A Queens man spent hours boozing at a strip club before getting in a drunken hit-and-run that left his girlfriend dead, prosecutors said.
A 13-count indictment Ray Perez, 27, unveiled Thursday outlines new details about the events leading to the death of Bridget Enriquez, 29. Perez drove the dying Enriquez, who was his long-term girlfriend and mother of his child, in his passenger seat for four miles after a Feb. 22 wreck in Astoria, authorities said.
“A mother’s life was taken due to the alleged reckless actions of the defendant who is accused of getting behind the wheel after a night of drinking and then failing to immediately get help after his passenger was seriously injured,” said Melinda Katz, district attorney for Queens, in a statement. Perez and Enriquez went to a Woodside strip club together near Laguardia Airport Feb. 21 about 9:15 p.m., prosecutors said.
By 1:15 a.m., Perez had down several boozy mixed drinks, staff tried to escort him out and he swung a shovel at staff with whom he argued, authorities said.
Perez drove off, only to return to the strip club shortly before 4 a.m., where video showed him driving the wrong way on a one-way street and chasing after a group of men who appeared to be the bouncers who booted him earlier, prosecutors said.
The incident then turned into a police chase when a Perez sped off from an NYPD officer who tried to pull him over for a bent license plate, officials said. The boozy Perez — whose blood-alcohol content later tested at 0.16 percent — blew through three stop signs in a residential area before another vehicle struck his car, prompting him to lose control and crash into two parked cars at an Astoria intersection, prosecutors said.
Perez sped off from the crash with the grievously injured Enriquez in his passenger seat, authorities said. He eventually stopped near 56th Drive and 61st Street in Maspeth, where he knocked on a home’s door asking for help, officials said. Cops arrived to find a bloodied Enriquez unconscious in the car’s passenger seat, authorities said. Medics rushed her to a local hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead, prosecutors said. Perez, who contended he only had two beers, was found to have a suspended driver’s license, authorities said. He faces charges of manslaughter, drunken driving, assault and more, records show.
If convicted, he could serve up to 15 years in prison.
Matt Troutman,Patch Staff