Third biker charged in SUV confrontation; he has had 21 prior arrests
A third biker has been charged in a confrontation with an SUV driver who struck and severely injured a motorcycle rider as he tried to flee bikers who surrounded his car.
Reginald Chance, 37, flipped off photographers before his arraignment on Sunday, report the Associated Press, the New York Post, the New York Daily News and the New York Times. He is accused of smashing in the driver’s side window of SUV driver Alexian Lien, who struck another biker after his Range Rover was swarmed and stopped by bikers who may have been trying to clear the roadway to perform stunts.
Chance was charged with assault, gang assault, weapons possession, criminal mischief and unlawful imprisonment in the Sept. 29 incident, the Times says. Prosecutors allege that Chance smashed the window, setting into motion a chain of events that culminated in Lien’s beating. Chance’s lawyer, Gregory Watts, said the charges were overblown and the video shows his client left the scene before Lien was beaten.
Chance was arrested in April and accused of selling cocaine near a school, the Post says. Police found cocaine, marijuana and a handgun in a search of his apartment, but the gun charge was reportedly dropped because the handgun was not the target of the warrant. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession and was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and 20 days of community service, reports the Post.
Chance had 21 prior arrests for charges ranging from drugs to robbery to gun possession, the Post says.
Lien’s beating ended when three bystanders intervened, according to the news reports. One of them, Sergio Consuegra, was on his way to church when he saw the beating. Lien was on the ground when Consuegra stepped between Lien and the bikers, Newsday reports.
“There was more coming,” Consuegra told reporters. “I felt intense danger at that moment, at that time, and I say to myself, ‘Let me not show these people that I’m here to engage in any kind of confrontation but that I’m here to protect the man and the family, so I’m going to keep it cool.’ “
Updated on Oct. 8 with revisions and a new headline.
