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The teenager’s family told Eyewitness News reporter Jim Dolan that he was not there at the time of the incident and was not involved.
Police arrested and charged a 17-year-old boy on Friday for the crimes, which damaged a BMW and a taxi and left its occupants in shock.
The incident was reported Tuesday shortly after 4 p.m. at the intersection of East 21st Street and Fifth Avenue, and on Thursday, a group of teenagers surrounded and wrecked two cars.
One of the teens allegedly kicked the BMW SUV when a large group surrounded him.
The parents of the previously accused teenager said he had an alibi and was at the Queens Center Mall buying a gift for his brother at the time of the incident.
His brother and father showed a receipt for approximately the time of the incident, as well as what they said were screenshots of their cell phone tracking apps.
“It is absolutely unacceptable,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “You’ve got these teens doing something that’s just wrong, period. At least one has been arrested, the others will be. Look, we have to teach our youth better all the time. It’s everyone’s business. But we also have to have consequences. So there will be consequences in this case. I don’t want anything like this to happen again in New York City. “
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Police are looking for up to four teens clearly caught on video throwing a bicycle on the hood of the car, jumping on the windshield and hitting the rear window nine times.
Detectives are working on possible identifications of at least two of those suspects and more arrests are expected.
They estimate that up to 25 cyclists were part of the group surrounding the BMW, and previously a yellow cab on East 29th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Attorney Teny Geragos recorded the video and said she witnessed many others doing the same.
“Suddenly, I heard loud screaming and banging,” he said. “I ran from the conference table to the window to see what the commotion was. I saw dozens and dozens of cyclists, hitting, taking turns, hitting their bikes against the cabbie, the cabbie’s cab.
She begs anyone with video of these incidents to turn them over to the police.
“There were too many, too many, and they were taking turns pounding on the back of their window,” he said. “Then they completely brushed against the rear view mirrors of his car, and then a cyclist even hit him.”
She said she was surprised.
“I was horrified, seeing it now and knowing what happened to other people,” she said. “It was scary. It was almost unbelievable because it was unlike anything I had witnessed in the city. I was really praying that everything was okay.”
The 36-year-old driver of the BMW, “Max Torgovnic, was with his mother as the scene unfolded. He said he still can’t get over the shock of this happening on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight, and therefore feared his life. like his mother’s.
“And I noticed this swarm of bicyclists, tall and small kids getting in and out of traffic and circling the car,” he said. “We got to the point where they were in front of me and they were on either side of me and behind me, and I’m probably going seven or eight miles an hour.”
Torgovnic said children were holding on to door handles. He said his first instinct was to slow down, stop and let them pass him.
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He said he did not see it, but a witness told him that someone was behind the vehicle on a bicycle doing a wheelie. And when he slowed down, the motorcyclist apparently collided with the rear of the car.
Torgovnic says that’s what instigated the attack that was caught on camera. He said he stopped when he heard the thud to make sure everyone was okay.
“I started to open the driver’s door, but immediately these kids who had just got off their bikes surrounded me on all sides and started screaming, screaming, hitting the car, hitting the hood of the car, just screaming. Come out, come out, open the window, roll the window down, ‘”he said.” When I didn’t, they began to unleash their aggression on the car itself. “
Anyone with information should call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or in Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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