Long Island Man Accused Of Slamming Into Boy, Smashing Phone
DIX HILLS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Long Island man can be seen on video charging into a 12-year-old boy, knocking him to the pavement and breaking his phone in the process.
Police identified the man as 39-year-old William Conte of Dix Hills.
"My whole left body hurts," the victim, Alex Anderson, told CBS2's Dave Carlin.
"He had blood all over his arm, because his elbow was torn open, and he has a concussion," his father, Christian Anderson, said.
His friend, 13-year-old Ryan Lorenz avoided injury, called police and went to get Alex's father, who arrived on the scene as officers were arresting Conte.
"I was just scared and wondering what he was going to do to me next," said Alex.
"That enrages me," his dad said. "I'm thriving at the bits to tackle him the way he tackled my son."
Alex said, before the start of the video, he and his friends had been riding bikes around the neighborhood. They stopped at the side of the road to talk, when a woman drove up and began recording them with her phone. So one of the boys started recording her back. That's when the woman's husband, who police identified as Conte, came out of the house.
"In the corner of my eye, I saw him. So I was running to go away, and I turned around again, he was right in my face," said the boy.
Alex insisted he wasn't antagonizing the woman.
"She probably didn't like us," he told Carlin. "They were saying that we're throwing stuff at their and stuff like that."
Others in the neighborhood said the young bicycle riders are known to play chicken with cars and swerve in ways that unnerve them.
"I know people who serve cars," Alex said.
Asked whether he was doing that, he replied, "not at that moment."
Alex's father said he can't be sure his child and friends didn't cross a line somehow.
"If anybody ever has a problem with my kids, they can always come to me," he said.
CBS2's reporters knocked on Conte's door several times, but no one answered.
"The man is a very nice man, and honestly if that kid would've jumped in front of my car, I would've run him over," one neighbor said.
"If something makes you angry, you cannot react. You talk to the child," said another resident.
"You would never treat a kid like that," a man added.
He was charged with harassment and criminal mischief.