I’m not ‘Putney pusher’, I was in US, says banker
AN INVESTMENT banker arrested after a jogger apparently pushed a woman into the path of a bus claims he was abroad at the time of the incident.
Eric Bellquist, 41, a partner at a private equity firm, was detained in Chelsea, west London, on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. But in a strongly worded statement issued through his lawyers, the American insisted it was a case of mistaken identity.
Solicitors Duncan Lewis said: “Our client has been wrongly implicated in this matter; he categorically denies being the individual concerned and has irrefutable proof that he was in the United States at the time of the incident. Consequently we expect a swift resolution to this wholly untrue allegation.”
CCTV footage released by police earlier this week showed a runner crossing Putney Bridge in London at 7.40am as a woman walked towards him from the other direction.
As the man approached, he appeared to deliberately knock the woman off the pavement and into the road, where a bus driver had to swerve sharply to avoid her.
The 33-year-old woman, who suffered bruising and back pain, was ignored by the runner some 15 minutes later when she approached him as he ran past her going the other way.
Scotland Yard released the video on Tuesday as they appealed for help in identifying the man. Mr Bellquist was arrested on Thursday morning and taken to a south London police station before being released without charge pending further inquiries.
The banker graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder and works for Mayfair-based private equity firm Hutton Collins Partners, which owns restaurant chains including Wagamama and Byron Hamburgers.
He sits on the chains’ boards as a non-executive director and was also responsible for the firm’s investment in Caffè Nero. He previously worked for Lehman Brothers.
Mr Bellquist is understood to have lived in a flat on the top floor of a redbrick mansion block near Sloane Square in Chelsea for around five years.
There was no answer at the property yesterday. A neighbour said he spent a “huge” amount of time abroad. He had never seen him running.
The driver of the Go Ahead 430 bus was hailed a hero by colleagues. Sergeant Mat Knowles, an investigating officer, said the victim had been put in “extreme danger” and it was only thanks to the quick reaction of the bus driver that she was not struck.