The teenager’s family told Jim Dolan, a reporter for Eyewitness News, that he was not there during the incident and did not take part in it.
Police on Friday arrested a 17-year-old man and charged him with the crimes that damaged a BMW and a taxi and caused their occupants to stagger.
The incident was reported on Tuesday just after 4pm at the intersection of East 21st Street and Fifth Avenue, and on Thursday a group of teenagers surrounded two cars and smashed them.
One of the teenagers allegedly kicked the BMW SUV when a large group surrounded it.
The parents of the previously charged teenager said he had an alibi and that he had bought a gift for his brother in the Queens Center Mall during the incident.
His brother and father showed a receipt from about the time of the incident, as well as what they said were screenshots of his cell phone tracking programs.
“This is absolutely unacceptable,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. ‘You let these teens do something that’s just wrong, period. At least one has been arrested, the other will do so. Look, we need to teach our young people better all the time. It is the duty of us all. But we must also have consequences. There will therefore be consequences in this case. I do not want to see something like this happen in New York City. ‘
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Police are looking for as many as four teenagers who were clearly caught throwing a bicycle at the car’s hood, jumping on the windscreen and punching the rear window nine times.
Detectives are working on possible identification of at least two of the suspects, and more arrests are expected.
They estimate up to 25 cyclists were part of the group around the BMW, and previously a yellow taxi in East 29th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Lawyer Teny Geragos recorded the video and said she saw many others doing the same.
“I suddenly heard screams and knocks,” she said. ‘I ran from the conference table to the window to see what the fuss was about. I saw dozens and dozens of cyclists bumping, taking turns, hitting their bikes against the driver, the cabin driver. ‘
She pleads with anyone who has video of these incidents to hand it over to the police.
“There were too many, too many of them, and they took turns hitting the back of his window,” she said. “Then they completely wiped his mirrors on his car, and one motorcycle even hit him.”
She said she was shocked.
“I was horrified when I saw it now and knew it had happened to other people,” she said. “It was scary. It was almost unbelievable because it was like nothing I had seen in the city. I was actually just praying that everything would be in order.
The 36-year-old driver of the BMW, “Max Torgovnic, was with his mother when the scene unfolded. He said he still could not overcome the shock that it happened in broad daylight in Fifth Avenue – and he feared his and his mother’s lives.
“And I noticed these swarms of cyclists, tall, young kids just braiding 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 about seven or eight miles an hour.”
Torgovnic said the children were holding the door handles. He said his first instinct was to slow down, stop and let him pass.
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He said he did not see it, but a witness told him that someone behind the vehicle on a bicycle was doing a wheel. And when he slowed down, the motorcycle apparently crashed into the back of the car.
Torgovnic says this is what fueled the attack captured on camera. He said he stopped when he heard the blow to make sure everyone was right.
‘I started to open the driver’s door, but I was immediately surrounded on all sides by these kids who had just gotten off their bikes, and they started screaming, screaming, hitting the car, hitting the car’s hood, just screaming’ Go out , ‘climb out, open the roll through the window, roll down the window,’ ‘he said. “When I did not do that, they started taking out their aggression on the car themselves.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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