Man Charged With D.W.I. Held in Fatal Hit and Run

A drunken driver who had just stolen a car fatally struck two young men on a quiet street corner in Middle Village, Queens, early Sunday, the police said. The driver fled, but was captured a few blocks away near the deli where he had stolen the car, the police said.

One of the victims, Robert Ogle, 16, of Middle Village, was a junior at the elite Brooklyn Technical High School, where he was a football player and an aspiring journalist, his family said. He and the second victim, Alex Paul, 20, of Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, had met on Saturday night through a mutual friend, and the two were part of a group having fun around the neighborhood, friends said.

The driver, Kenneth Guyear, 27, of 72nd Street in Middle Village, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, vehicular manslaughter, manslaughter, assault, leaving the scene of an accident, grand larceny and driving without a license, prosecutors said. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.126, they said; the legal limit is 0.08.

Mr. Guyear, who been at a party and at a brother’s house on Saturday, had stolen the car, a silver Kia, from outside a deli at Alderton Street and Woodhaven Boulevard, where its owner had left it running while he went inside, prosecutors said. Mr. Guyear struck the two young men while they were crossing 80th Street and 62nd Avenue on foot shortly before 1:30 a.m., the police said. He was arrested at Woodhaven Boulevard and Dry Harbor Road.

Neighbors said they ran outside to help, only to find that there was nothing they could do. Mr. Ogle was pronounced dead at the scene; Mr. Paul, who friends said was dragged some distance by the Kia, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he died, the police said.

One neighbor, David Cunningham, 39, said he was awakened by the sound of a collision. “I thought it was a car that had hit another car or a tree, because it was a very loud thump,” he said. “I looked out the window and saw a guy in the street, and I told my wife to call 911.”

He ran to Mr. Paul and tried to comfort him by telling him an ambulance was on the way, he said. “It looked like a lot of his bones were broken,” he said. “He just looked like a broken rag doll.”

Another neighbor, a nurse who declined to give her name, said she ran to Mr. Ogle. It was a cold night, but she said he was not wearing a coat. “He did not have a pulse and he was unresponsive,” she said. “I want his mother to know there were people who were with him.”

Friends arriving at the Ogle family’s house on Sunday afternoon expecting to watch the Super Bowl were stunned by the news.

“Robert was an excellent football player and a really smart kid,” said Chris Liander, 16. “A great friend.”

Less was known of Mr. Paul, who had lived for about two months at an apartment on Lincoln Avenue. His landlady, Brigma Balkissoon, said he had moved out Saturday after falling behind on the rent and had left a note saying that he would be back for a bag of clothes.

A man who answered the door at Mr. Guyear’s former address in Middle Village said that Mr. Guyear was engaged to his daughter until he lost his job at a clock factory in Brooklyn about six years ago. The engagement was broken off and Mr. Guyear moved out, said the man, who declined to give his name.

The Ogles are well known in the neighborhood and are in active in the Catholic community, and Mr. Ogle’s uncle, Msgr. Sean Ogle, is the pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Astoria, Queens. Mr. Ogle attended Resurrection Ascension School in Rego Park, Queens, through the eighth grade, friends said. His father, Brendan Ogle, 56, works for the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, and his mother, Mei Ogle, who was born in Taiwan, is a foreign language teacher at Brooklyn Tech.

“The last thing I told him was, ‘Is your cellphone charged?’ ” Brendan Ogle said, “and he told me, ‘Dad, you worry too much.’ ”

He said he was waiting up for his son, who was late coming home, when detectives arrived with his school identification card. He learned later of Mr. Guyear’s arrest. “They got him, but I can’t describe it,” he said. “There are no words to describe losing a child.”

Robert Ogle played football with the Queens Falcons, a Pop Warner team, before enrolling in 2006 at Brooklyn Tech, where he broke his leg in his first season on the school’s football team, said his former Falcons coach, Tim Cavanaugh.

“A very diligent and very committed kid,” Mr. Cavanaugh said, adding that the youth had hoped to play again. “He was a great lineman. He was a very good boy.”