Bx. hit-run kills cyclist
Guinean immigrant was heading home from morning prayers
A Guinean immigrant who was hoping to build a life in New York was killed by a Bronx hit-and-run driver as he rode his bike home from prayers at his mosque, his heartbroken brother said Sunday.
“I gave him that bike so that he could get around,” Thierno Balde’s sibling Mamadou Balde told the Daily News.
Video from the crash shows Thierno Balde riding along E. 161st St. in Melrose about 5:55 a.m. on Friday when the driver of a Jeep Grand Cherokee plowed into him while apparently speeding south on Melrose Ave. Balde, 24, was traveling through a steady red light, police said.
Medics rushed Balde, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, to Lincoln Hospital, but he could not be saved.
The driver sped off and cops have made no arrests in the incident.
Balde was born in Guinea and worked in finance and banking in the West African country before coming to the U.S. in September, his brother said.
“He graduated college and looked to move here,” Mamadou Balde, 38, said. “It was his first time in America. … He liked America.”
Balde wasn’t working yet, but he had plans to go to college in New York and continue his career in accounting.
“It’s very sad. He started to live his dreams and then someone got him. It’s very sad,” his sibling said.
“He was coming home; he went to the mosque to pray and then he was going to come back home. He would go to mosque every day, so this was normal. He was just riding his bike and the guy was overspeeding and hit him. … They collided.”
Mamadou Balde said his younger brother helped around their home and would take his children to school.
“It’s just sad. Everyone is sad because at his age, he was just getting started. He wanted to be here and be able to help and show his potential here. He wanted more opportunities here and a better life.”
Mamadou Balde said he learned Thierno was hurt in a crash when police came knocking on his door.
“They told us to go to the hospital,” he said. “We got to the hospital and he was already gone. The doctors said they did everything they can.”
Abdul Alamari, a deli worker at 2020 Deli Convenience located near the site of the incident, said he’s seen several crashes at the intersection in recent months.
“I don’t know how this keeps happening,” he said. “It’s probably speeding or maybe drunk drivers. A lot of the accidents happen at nighttime.”
“The guy in the car, he had to go more than 40, 50,” Alamari said. “He definitely went over the limit. … The bike, he didn’t stop at the light and that car was going so fast.”
Last year was the second-deadliest year on record for cyclists, including e-bikes, with 29 fatalities. Only 1999 was deadlier, when 40 cyclists died on city streets.
The city recorded 19 cycling deaths in 2022, 19 in 2021 and 26 in 2020.