The last time Sofia Portillo saw her son alive, he was dancing in front of a mirror preparing for an upcoming quinceañera. It was Saturday afternoon and, she said, his exuberance shone.

The next time she saw him, she said, he was on a stretcher at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, a blanket draped over his body. She screamed, knowing he was gone, she recalled.

“I prayed that God save him. I don’t understand why he was taken,” she said, speaking through tears during an interview at her Riverhead home on Tuesday.

Town of Riverhead police said the 16-year-old, identified by his mother as Ostin Portillo Perdomo, died after crashing into a tree around 9:20 p.m. Saturday in front of Cornell University Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center on Sound Avenue, about th

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