A large pack of bikers surrounded an SUV on Sunday and eventually beat and slashed the driver, whose wife and daughter were also in the car, according to reports citing NYPD and a video of the incident.
The disturbing video, which we’ve posted below, comes from the helmet-cam of one of the bikers. It’s not clear that the video posted online tells the whole story, because it’s not clear whether anything transpired before the confrontation.
But what it does show is quite disturbing: a biker appears to slow down in front of a black Range Rover and is then hit by the SUV around 125th street (it appears from the video that he attempted to force the SUV to hit him). The SUV driver stops, but after being surrounded by the bikers, the driver then attempts to speed off and hits at least one of the bikers.
Eventually, they caught up with the driver, according to the Daily News:
“The chase continues up I-95, where the driver gets off on W. 176th St. But when he is forced to stop at a red light on W. 178th St. near Wadsworth Ave., the bikers attack.
One biker takes off his helmet, which he uses to smash through the driver’s side window. Another man tries to punch through a window to the backseat, where the child was sitting.”
The next time the bikers caught up with the man, they apparently slashed his tires and then beat him and slashed his face, police told Gothamist. He was treated with stitches at Columbia University Medical Center.
Update: Details continue to emerge about the incident since we originally published this story. According to the Times, the confrontation started in the West 50’s. “Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the motorcyclists had been part of a planned, but unauthorized, event in which hundreds of riders gathered outside of Manhattan and planned to descend en masse into Times Square. Under the name ‘Hollywood Stuntz,’ the loosely organized ride succeeded in snarling Midtown traffic last year, Mr. Kelly said, ‘with well over a thousand motorcycles, dirt bikes, quads, four wheel vehicles.'” Some bikers were arrested earlier in the day in connection with the rally (but not the beating).
The driver’s name is Alexian Lien and his two-year-old daughter was in a carseat in the backseat, according to the Daily News. Lien and his wife were celebrating their one year wedding anniversary. Lien apparently called 911 to alert the authorities to erratic driving by the bikers, but it’s not clear why no police cars arrived during the long chase (more than 6 minutes) uptown. No arrests had been reported as of Monday night. The Daily News has a graphic photo of the victim on the ground following the attack.
Police told the News and Daily Mail that there were no other injuries (implying that none of the bikers was injured). Police later told the Times that the biker who was initially hit had broken legs.
Gothamist’s reporting makes it clear that authorities are convinced that the bikers were the aggressors:
Though it’s claimed here that one of the motorcyclists was killed, neither the FDNY nor the NYPD press offices have any record of motorcycle fatalities or even injuries. An NYPD spokesman says the driver “inadvertently” struck one of the motorcyclists, “causing no injuries.” Then the motorcyclists allegedly “attacked” the vehicle, and that’s when the driver sped off (at the 30 second mark), “striking more.”
No one had been arrested as of this morning, but police say they are investigating.
Someone also put together the most confrontational highlights of the video below (although it eliminates some of the context):
This was just so disturbing to watch. We saw a bunch of these idiots (many without helmets) cruising up CPW doing wheelies and acting like complete thugs, yet there was no police presence or even attempts to deter the kind of reckles, dangerous behavior. It’s a disturbing trend of the police just not giving a crap.
This is hard to believe that on the West side hwy, in broad daylight, there were NO OTHER cars on the road?! Really??? And why was the motorcyclist even recording it? He just HAPPENED to have a camera attached to his bike? A little too farfetched to be believable….
Now, now we wouldnt want to profiling them, and stopping and frisking them just because they are “bikers” ….
That would be prejudiced.
This is what happens when the police are demonized for doing their job. We get anarchy , AKA 1970s NYC.
First of all, the normal “caveat” for people new to these comments. The person identified as “Westsider” above is unethically using the same screen name (absent one space) as the author / editor of West Side Rag. He or she has no connection to this web site. Since it has been pointed out to him/her any number of times that this is bad netiquette, misleading, and in fact unethical, and he/she continues to use this screen name, one can conclude that he/she is intentionally misleading people.
now, regarding your comment: you are inserting a right wing political agenda into a tragedy. The racial profiling “stop and frisk” policy had nothing to do with “bikers”, and in fact would be a ridiculous tactic to use against motorcyclists.
this incident was appalling and a tragedy, and as others have noted, hard to watch. It diminishes what this family went through to try to “use” it to foster a political agenda that has nothing to do with the incident.
These “bikers” are a constant nuisance and danger to the neighborhood.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they framed the driver by slowing like that just so they could do violence against him.
Hope the SUV driver is okay. Too bad the biker’s didn’t learn their lesson. Then maybe the neighborhood would finally be quieter at night!
Bikers and cyclists wear helmet cams to record the idiotic drivers that run them off the road. Seems to me the RR driver possibly hit someone from behind, even after that there appeared to be a conversation (no frenetic movement indicating violence at that point) and he ran over some bikes and possibly bikers. What was he thinking by doing that? As the Rag says, we don’t know what happened to start it in the first place. While there are some ahole bikers there are some ahole SUV drivers also.
Why is it allowed for them to drive in packs like this? I saw this same group blocking up Amsterdam. They seemed to be driving slow before the range hit them from behind. Either way both parties seem equally at fault. I think all the bikers should lose their motorcycle license simply for blocking the WSH like that. Absolutely disgusting.
I saw a dozens of bikers heading south on CPW at W. 70th Street Sunday afternoon. They all ran the red light, preventing vehicles that had the green light from turning on to CPW. The bikes were also way loud – louder, I suspect, than legally permitted. Frankly, they were using their numbers and loudness to intimidate motorists and pedestrians around them.
I wonder if this was the same group. If anyone needs me as a witness, feel free to call me: 212.702.0203. I’d be more than happy to do whatever I can to help.
Why publish this video? What is the purpose or benefit? Thought this was a community website not a redistributor of gratuitous violence.
Hey Stuart… are you really that dense? The police need to be investigated on the lack of response and to the lack of enforcement in general.
SO true! Why dont we have a police presence on the UWS?
You never see the bastards. What the hell do they do all day? Meanwhile they could be making arrests and fining a ton of people who act antisocially.
No harm in reporting the news that affects our community. The behavior of the bikers does affect us on the Upper West Side. As does the water main break on lower West End, a fire, and so on –
The police were too busy stopping and frisking people to actually come and help the driver. Geez, the police have more important things to do than protect people.
I hope the new mayor turns thinks around at the police department but that is a really tall order. Its been a long time since protecting civilians were a top priority.
This poor family was ambushed and terrorized by thugs on motorcycles on the West Side Highway for 4 MILES – not a police car in sight…stop at a red light and look at your cell phone and you get a ticket…something is seriously wrong here…
Under DeBlasio the police couldn’t intervene in this because they’d be dubbed facist and racist and be forced to take sensitivity courses to better understand outlaw bikers
did anyone see that the SUV ran over a biker, and then a couple more, and didn’t stop. Why are we only demonizing the bikers. These comments are ridiculous. Riding in a pack does not make you a gang or a thug. It just means you and your friends have bikes and you all ride on a gorgeous sunny day. I’ve been there. I’ve done that. A negligent SUV is not the victim. Bikers get run off the road frequenly. Clearly this driver of the RR had a mission to be an aggressor.
I know common sense is on the decline….but do you really mean to say that if you were surrounded by 20+ people who tried to force you to stop your vehicle on a highway with your wife and small child inside, that you would not step on the gas and get the righteous hell out of there? If that’s “negligent,” I would hate to see your idea of “responsible.” If you watch the SUV, it clearly is just trying to get away from the bikers…and with good reason, considering they repeatedly attacked the vehicle. They could easily have followed the SUV, noted its license plate, and called the police themselves. Unfortunately, their own video evidence incriminates them, which explains at least in part why they didn’t do that. It matters very little what led up to this, in fact. The bikers, at least the individual aggressors caught in this video, are, at best, reckless vigilantes…and more probably just low-life thugs.
Clearly you did not witness this mass of bikers on sunday as many of us did.
I saw the bikers when they came down Broadway at Col. Circle sunday afternoon. At that time I observed one of them riding south in the northbound lane, right in front of Trump’s building. Ironically, the cops were camped out there in vans like they usually do when Occupy people are sitting there on the sidewalk. None of the cops went after the biker.
It seems this story has broken news all over the internet. Most articles are titling it as an SUV running over bikers, which really disturbs me and makes me angry. It’s crystal clear that the bikers were provoking and trying to take over the highway. The cyclist clearly slowed and stopped in front of the SUV and in turn got bumped. He was clearly provoking the SUV. The bikers got what they wanted. I’ve seen gangs like this up and down broadway and its such an annoyance. They are loud, completely break all traffic laws, pop wheelies. They have nothing better to do? Out of fear of my family and safety I would of done the same thing and driven the hell out of there. I would of rolled up the window and immediately called the police as I was driving though. The driver shouldn’t be one to blame, the bikers should. Regardless, look at their behavior after the fact, breaking the window and ripping the guy out of his car and slashing his face? A normal citizen would call the cops. They were looking for trouble.
I would have…I would have.
Sorry, but I teach English.
where were the police during all of this? NO POLICE AT ALL.