This undated photo provided by his family’s attorney on Friday, Oct. 4, 2013 shows Edwin Mieses Jr. after he was struck by an SUV during a motorcycle rally in New York that turned violent on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013. He suffered a broken spine, fractured ribs, a punctured lung and a torn aortic valve, his defense attorney, Gloria Allred, said Friday. His injuries may have left him paralyzed. (AP Photo/Family Photo via Gloria Allred)
NEW YORK (AP) — Two more motorcyclists have been taken into police custody in connection with the videotaped beating of a New York City man by a gang of angry bikers.
Robert Sims, of Brooklyn, was charged with gang assault, weapons possession and other offenses for his role in last Sunday’s attack on an SUV carrying a man, his wife and their young child, the New York City Police Department said Saturday.
Police said the bikers stopped the SUV on a highway, attacked the vehicle, then chased the driver and pulled him from the car after he plowed over a motorcyclist while trying to escape. The driver, Alexian Lien, needed stiches after being pummeled by the bikers.
The motorcyclist who was crushed by the SUV, Edwin Mieses Jr., of Lawrence, Mass., suffered a broken spine and two broken legs and may never walk again, his family said.
Police also detained another Brooklyn man Friday who they believed had participated in the attack. As of Saturday, formal charges had not been filed, authorities said.
Sims, 35, was in custody Saturday and not available for comment. It wasn’t clear whether he had retained a lawyer yet. There was no listed telephone number for Sims at the address where police said he lived.
He is the third person to face formal charges in connection with the attack, though the case against one of those motorcyclists was subsequently dismissed when prosecutors said they needed more time to investigate.
Police also released a photograph Saturday of another man they say they want to question in connection with the attack.
Lien has not been charged. Mieses’ family held a news conference Friday with their lawyer, Gloria Allred, in which they said that he wasn’t doing anything wrong when he was struck by Lien’s SUV. They acknowledged that Mieses had stopped his bike in front of the family’s vehicle but said he was trying to get the other riders to leave the family alone when he was hit.
