Wife Says Lawrence Man Paralyzed In NYC Road Rage Incident Caught On Video
BOSTON (CBS) - A Lawrence man is paralyzed after a disturbing road rage incident in New York City that was caught on video.
The wife of Edwin Mieses tells WBZ-TV her husband is in a coma.
Police say the incident began Sunday when a driver of a Range Rover was suddenly surrounded on the West Side Highway in Manhattan by a group of motorcyclists on an annual ride to Times Square.
In the video recorded on a biker's helmet camera and later posted on YouTube, one of the bikers appears to nearly stop in front of the SUV on the highway and the two collided.
Some of the bikers, apparently angry over the collision, began to confront the driver and, at one point, started to slash his tires.
The driver, 33-year-old Alexian Lien, then barreled through three of the bikers to get away.
One of those bikers was Mieses. His wife, Dayana Mieses, says he had gotten off of his bike to help the injured biker who was hit in the initial collision.
"He went to help someone," Dayana told WBZ-TV Tuesday morning.
Some of the bikers caught up with Lien further down the highway and tried to open the driver's door but he escaped again.
But when he got off the highway and ended up stuck in city traffic, a couple of the bikers were able to pull him from the vehicle and attack.
Lien was beaten while his wife and two-year-old daughter were inside the SUV. He sustained facial lacerations and bruises.
Lien will not be charged for his role, according to police.
The NYPD announced Monday that two people had been arrested in connection with the incident. (Continued...)
Christopher Cruz, 28, was charged with reckless endangerment, reckless menacing and endangering the welfare of a child.
A second man turned himself in Tuesday afternoon. Police say that man allegedly smashed in the windshield of the Range Rover.
Police also released a photo of two more bikers they're looking for.
The men are accused of taking off their helmets and smashing the SUV, before pulling the driver out and attacking him.
Dayana Mieses is now by her husband's side in a New York hospital and she is furious with Lien.
"This man needs to know he hurt someone," said Mieses. "That man paralyzed my husband. He needs to pay for what he did."
Mieses says her husband has injuries to his heart, lungs and ribs and that he is paralyzed from the waist down.
The couple has two children, ages 15 and 9.
Mieses works in studio engineering in the music business. Friends call him Jay Meezee. They've created a Facebook page for him.
"This is devastating," Yolanda Santiago, Edwin's mother, told WBZ-TV Tuesday. "All his ribs are fractured, his lungs are so badly bruised that he's still on a ventilator."
Santiago says if the SUV driver had just stopped, things likely would not have gotten out of hand. She doesn't understand why that driver has not been charged.
"It's not going to bring my son's legs back because he won't walk again," said Santiago. "But justice has to be served with this gentleman who did this to my son."
The YouTube video had more than one million views as of Tuesday morning.
