The teen’s family told Eyewitness News reporter Jim Dolan that he was not there at the time of the incident and was not participating.
Police on Friday arrested and charged a 17-year-old man for the crimes, in which a BMW and a taxi were damaged and the occupants were shaken.
The incident was reported just after 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the intersection of East 21st Street and Fifth Avenue, and on Thursday a group of teenagers was surrounded and two cars destroyed.
One of the teens is said to have kicked the BMW SUV when a large group surrounded him.
The previously accused teen’s parents said he had an alibi, and he was at the Queens Center Mall at the time of the incident to buy a gift for his brother.
His brother and father showed a receipt from around the time of the incident, as well as screenshots of his cell phone tracking apps.
“It is absolutely unacceptable,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “You have these teens doing something that’s just wrong, period. At least one got arrested, the others will be. See, we have to teach our young people better all the time. It’s up to all of us. “Have consequences. So in this case there will be consequences. I don’t want anything like that ever to happen in New York City.”
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Police are looking for as many as four teenagers who were clearly caught on video throwing a bicycle on the hood of the car, jumping on the windshield and hitting the rear window nine times.
Investigators 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 around the BMW, and previously a yellow cab on East 29th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Lawyer Teny Geragos recorded the video and said she witnessed many others doing the same.
“Suddenly I heard loud screams and banging,” she said. I ran from the conference table to the window to see what the commotion was. I saw dozens and dozens of cyclists banging, taking turns, with their bikes against the taxi driver, the taxi driver. ‘
She begs anyone who has video footage of these incidents to hand them over to the police.
“There were too many, too many, and they took turns hitting the back of his window,” she said. “Afterwards they swept his mirrors completely sideways on his car, and then a motorcyclist even hit him.”
She said she was shocked.
“I was shocked to see it now and knew it was happening to other people,” she said. It was terrifying. It was almost unbelievable because it was like I had never seen one in the city. I really prayed that everything would be fine.
The 36-year-old BMW driver, “Max Torgovnic, was with his mother as the scene unfolded. He said he still can’t get over the shock that this happened on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight – and he feared it would both his life and that of his mother.
“And I noticed a swarm of cyclists, tall young kids just swinging in and out of traffic and surrounding 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 the kids were holding the door handles. He said his first instinct was to slow down, stop, and let them pass him by.
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He said he hadn’t seen it, but a witness told him that someone was behind the vehicle on a bicycle doing a wheelie. And as he slowed down, the motorcyclist apparently crashed into the back of the car.
Torgovnic says this was the reason for the attack that was captured on camera. He said he stopped when he heard the thud to make sure everything was okay.
“I started to open the driver’s door, but I was immediately surrounded on all sides by these kids who had just got off their bikes and they started screaming, screaming, hitting the car, hitting the hood of the car, just shouting. shouting, “Get out, get out, open the roll down the window, roll down the window,” he said. “When I didn’t, they started touting their aggression on the car itself.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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