After a group of bikers attacked an SUV in a videotaped incident, one of the mob members who stopped traffic on a busy New York City was struck by the escaping family and now is in a coma.
The incident took place in Manhattan this weekend and was captured on video from one of the riders. A large group of bikers were riding through the city as part of an informal biking event. The video shows the motorcycles zipping around traffic and surrounding an SUV, whose driver honks his horn.
One of the bikers then gets in front of the SUV and slams on his brakes, which forced the Range Rover to crash into the back of the bike. The large group of bikers — which numbered between 30 and 50 — then grind to a halt, getting off of their bikes and stopping traffic.
As some of the bikers begin to attack the SUV, the man inside — 33-year-old Alexian Lien — sped away, barreling over the parked bikes and through bikers to escape. Inside the car was Lien’s wife and infant daughter.
The bikers then chased the SUV driver through Manhattan, and when he got stuck behind other cars some of the riders got off their bikes and attacked again . Lien was dragged from his car and beaten , suffering lacerations to his face and bruises.
Lien was not the only one hurt in the incident. While he was pulling away, Lien ran over Edwin Mieses, one of the bikers who had stopped.
Dayana MIeses, Edwin’s wife, said he was just stopping to help the initial driver who was struck by the SUV.
“When all the bikers stopped, my husband got out, parked his bike to walk over to try to help his friend. He walked over towards the front of the vehicle when, at this point, I don’t know what happened the man was scared, the man just peeled off and ran over my husband,” she told WBZ-TV .
Mieses says the motorcycle road rage incident has left her husband paralyzed from the waist down. He also suffered injuries to his heart, lungs, and ribs, she added.
Though it was the bikers who first attacked the SUV, Mieses says it is Lien who is at fault.
“That man paralyzed my husband,” Mieses said about Lien. “He needs to pay for what he did.”
Friends of Mieses have started a Facebook page for him calling for support and criticizing the media for what they believe is a “one-sided” account of the incident.
Police have backed up Lien, however, clearing him in the incident and declaring that he was justified in his actions to escape the mob.
“They take their helmets and they start to dent his car and apparently his tires are slashed there,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Police have also arrested one of the riders in the motorcycle road rage incident, 28-year-old Christopher Cruz, and charged him with reckless endangerment, reckless driving, endangering the welfare of a child, and menacing.
The police have released images of the bikers who attacked the SUV driver and hope to make more arrests.
