The teen’s family told Eyewitness News reporter Jim Dolan that he was not there at the time of the incident and did not participate.
Police on Friday arrested and charged a 17-year-old man with the crimes, which damaged a BMW and a taxi and left its occupants shaken.
The incident was reported on Tuesday shortly after 4pm 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 teenagers allegedly kicked the BMW SUV while a large group surrounded him.
The parents of the previously charged 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 at the time of the incident, as well as what they said were screenshots of their cell phone tracking apps.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “You have these teenagers doing something wrong, period. At least one has been arrested, the others will be. Look, we have to teach our young people better all the time. It’s up to all of us. But we also have to have consequences. So there will be consequences in this case. I don’t want to see anything like this in New York City. “
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Police are looking for up to four teenagers clearly trapped in a video throwing a bicycle into the hood of the car, jumping on the windshield and hitting the rear window again.
Detectives are working on possible identifications of at least two of these suspects and more arrests are expected.
It is estimated that up to 25 cyclists were part of the group surrounding the BMW and previously a yellow taxi on 29 East Street and Fifth Avenue.
Lawyer Teny Geragos recorded the video and said he witnessed many others doing the same.
“Suddenly, I heard screams and loud bangs,” he 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, hitting their bikes against the taxi driver, the driver’s cab.”
She is begging everyone to have a video of these incidents to hand them over to the police.
“There were too many, too many, and they were tapping behind the window again,” he said. “Then the mirrors on his car were completely wiped off and even a motorcyclist even hit him.”
He said he was surprised.
“I was horrified, to see it now and to know what happened to other people,” he said. “It was terrifying. It was almost amazing because it seemed like nothing I had ever witnessed in the city. I was really just praying for everything to go well.
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 crash on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight – and he feared so much the life of his like that of his mother.
“And I noticed this swarm of cyclists, small, tall kids just coming in and out of traffic and going around the car,” he said. “We got to the point where they were in front of me, they were on either side of me and behind me, and I’m probably going to do seven or eight miles per hour.”
Torgovnic said the children were holding on to the door handles. He said his first instinct was to slow down, stop and let them pass.
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He said he didn’t see it, but a witness told him that someone was behind the vehicle with a bicycle doing a wheelbarrow. And when he slowed down, it looks like the motorist crashed into the back of the car.
Torgovnic says this was what provoked the attack which was captured on camera. He said he stopped when he heard the beat to make sure everyone was okay.
“I started to open the driver’s door, but I was immediately surrounded on all sides by these kids who had just gotten off the bike and started screaming, screaming, punching the car, hitting the hood of the car, just to shout: Get out, get out, open the roll by the window, wheel by the window, ”he said. “When I didn’t, they started taking their aggression out of the car itself.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers phone line at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or in Spanish, 1-888-57-TRACK (74782).
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