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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Motorcyclist Turned Self in After SUV Attack, NYPD Says

By  Murray Weiss Nicole Bode and Patrick Wall | October 1, 2013 6:26pm 

 A motorcycle group surrounded an SUV driver and beat him in front of his wife and child after he hit one of their bikers on the Henry Hudson Parkway Sunday afternoon, cops said.
A motorcycle group surrounded an SUV driver and beat him in front of his wife and child after he hit one of their bikers on the Henry Hudson Parkway Sunday afternoon, cops said.
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YouTube/Daphne Avalon

MANHATTAN — A motorcyclist was arrested Tuesday after he turned himself in to cops in connection to Sunday's assault on an SUV driver on the Henry Hudson Parkway, sources told DNAinfo New York.

Allen Edwards, 42, was believed to be one of two men seen in a video attacking an SUV driven by a 33-year-old banker who was out on a drive Sunday afternoon with his wife and 2-year-old daughter when an altercation with motorcyclists turned violent, sources said.

Cops previously arrested biker Christopher Cruz, of New Jersey, on Monday, after he allegedly slowed down in front of the SUV in the northbound lane of the Henry Hudson near 125th Street shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday, forcing the Land Rover to bump his tire, cops said.

 Edwin Mieses, whom friends call Jay Meeze, received two broken legs in the crash and may be paralyzed, police said.
Edwin Mieses, whom friends call Jay Meeze, received two broken legs in the crash and may be paralyzed, police said.
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Instagram/gurber78 and Facebook/Justice for Jay Meeze

Cruz was expected to be charged with endangering a child and reckless driving, police said. Both Edwards and Cruz also faced charges of reckless endangerment.

Neither was charged with the assault that left the SUV's driver with two black eyes and stiches, an NYPD spokesman. That attacker remained at large Wednesday morning.

"This whole matter is still being investigated, we're trying to pull this all together and talk to these folks," NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a press conference Tuesday.

Kelly said the SUV's driver had not yet been charged, as police investigate what happened when he fled the pack of bikers who slashed his tires and hit his vehicle with their helmets after he rear-ended Cruz's bike.

Three bikers were hit during the fracas, including Edwin Mieses, of Lawrence, Mass., who has two broken legs and may be paralyzed as a result, Kelly said.

"It depends on what the circumstances are," Kelly said. "It depends on whether your vehicle is being attacked, whether or not you think you're being attacked, whether or not your wife and child are in the car. You have to look at the totality of the circumstances — and that's what we'll do."

Kelly said he didn't have a blanket answer for other motorists should they ever find themselves in a similar situation. Many uptown residents have long complained about motorcyclists who take over their streets, taunting car drivers and terrorizing pedestrians.

"There's no easy answer. You have to use common sense to get out of there without hurting anybody. That's what we advise you to do. Keep your doors locked. But there's no one-size-fits-all in a situation like this," Kelly said.

He added that it was difficult for cops to intervene in the SUV incident because of the fact that the SUV was constantly on the move.

But Kelly cautioned that Sunday's incident was not representative of the majority of motorcycle riders on the city.

"We have many groups of motorcycles come into the city," Kelly said. "The vast majority of them adhere to the law, they obtain a permit, and that's what we should do."

Sunday's motorcycle ride — which police believe was organized by HollywoodStuntz, a motorcycle stunt group — drew riders from around the tri-state area, including from New Jersey, Westchester, Pennsylvania, Long Island, Kelly said.

He said the group took over Times Square last year, and that Sunday's ride was apparently an attempt to do so again.

He said that the group provoked 200 calls on Sunday from people warning police that bikers were operating in a "reckless manner."

While cops set up a perimeter to try to keep the bikers out of Midtown, many were diverted uptown, according to police sources.

"When people come in with the apparent intent to be disruptive, that causes problems for the police department, for everyone," Kelly said.