Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Motorcyclist Struck by S.U.V. Is Arrested and Charged With Reckless Behavior


The police charged the motorcyclist, Christopher Cruz, 28, of Passaic, N.J., with reckless driving, reckless endangerment, and menacing and endangering the welfare of a child as he rode in a large group that surrounded a Manhattan family’s Range Rover on Sunday afternoon.


Mr. Cruz, the police said, can be seen in a six-and-a-half-minute video taken by another motorcyclist slowing in front of the vehicle just before he is struck. He received minor injuries, the police said. Mr. Cruz did not sustain broken legs, as the police had initially reported.


On Tuesday afternoon the police said a second motorcyclist had turned himself at a Queens police precinct. The man, a 42-year-old from Jamaica, Queens, identified himself as one of the riders present at the assault of the Range Rover driver, the police said. He can be seen pounding on the S.U.V. with his hands as another rider smashes the driver’s side window with his helmet, the police said.


That was the last in a series of confrontations that began with the initial collision on the Henry Hudson Parkway. After that collision, other motorcyclists can be seen in the video stopping, some directly in front of the Range Rover, which was being driven by Alexian Lien, 33. His wife and 2-year-old daughter were also in the vehicle.


Seconds later, the vehicle accelerated, crashing into at least one other motorcyclist, the police said on Tuesday. That rider, a 26-year-old man who was not identified, had two broken legs and was being treated at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, the police said.


The police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, told reporters on Monday that the driver of the S.U.V. probably feared for his safety as the riders surrounded his car just before he took off. Mr. Kelly said Mr. Lien had not been charged.


As some riders stayed back with those injured, a large number gave chase to the Range Rover, eventually catching it in traffic on 178th Street in Washington Heights. There, Mr. Kelly said, several motorcyclists pulled Mr. Lien from his vehicle and beat him. He had facial lacerations and bruising and has been released from the hospital.




This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:


Correction: October 1, 2013


An earlier version of this article misstated the date when the police said that Christopher Cruz was arrested. The police said it on Tuesday, not Monday.






Yahoo Local News – New York Times




http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=14867

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