Car crashes into house

A 22-year-old Delaware County man who killed his best friend during a 2006 underage drinking party was arrested this morning on suspicion of drunk driving after he drove his car into a Chester County house, police said.

Sean Owen O'Neill Jr. of Glen Mills was traveling at 12:55 a.m. in the 800 block of Westtown Road when he lost control of his black Cadillac, traveled down an embankment, smashed into two cars, then crashed into the garage of a residence. West Goshen Township police said. No one was injured.

O'Neill first gained notoriety when he accidentally shot and killed Scott Sheridan, a Cardinal O'Hara classmate, during an unchaperoned drinking party at the O'Neills' Chester County home on Sept. 1, 2006. O'Neill was adjudicated as a juvenile and completed two residential treatment programs before being released in 2009.

The shooting death prompted a search of the family's palatial Willistown Township residence that led to a federal firearms conviction for Sean Owen O'Neill Sr., 51, an illegal immigrant and former Delaware County pub owner who was recently deported to Ireland after serving an 18-month jail sentence.

Another of the family's three children, Roisin O'Neill, 26, has also experienced problems with alcohol abuse. She is serving a 5- to 10-year prison term for causing a crash on Sept. 19, 2008, that killed Patricia Murphy Waggoner, 63, a grandmother from Brimfield, Mass. Police said Roisin O'Neill was driving drunk in the wrong direction on I-476 in Plymouth Township.

West Goshen Township Police said officers arrived at the accident scene this morning after the residents of the home that Sean O'Neill Jr. hit called 911. Police said they found O'Neill sitting in the driver's seat attempting to move the vehicle.

O'Neill failed field sobriety tests, police said, adding that blood was taken for testing. O'Neill was released to await a summons on drunken-driving and related offenses, police said.