No joy in this ride
Biker’s death while fleeing cops rocks community
A YOUNG dirt biker’s death in a collision with a police cruiser last weekend added to community fears about roving bands of illegal joyriders on the streets of Hunts Point, residents said.
Eddie Fernandez, 28, was killed Aug. 11 while fleeing police after he and a friend were spotted riding dirt bikes illegally, cops said.
“The issue we’re having with these dirt bikes is they are breaking traffic laws and putting other people at risk,” said Rafael Salamanca, Community Board 2 District Manager. “That’s not to say that what happened this weekend isn’t very sad. Our hearts go out to the family of the victim.”
Fernandez was remembered by friends as the kindhearted superintendent of the building where he lived on Bryant Ave.
“He was a good kid,” said his coworker, Don Edison, 27, of Longwood. “He was selfless. If he had just $5 in his pocket he would still share.”
Fernandez and his neighbor, Adalberto Gonzalez, were cruising on their dirt bikes in Hunts Point just after noon when police said they witnessed Gonzalez riding the wrong way down Manida St.
He was not wearing a helmet and his Honda bike did not have a license plate. A vehicle was forced to swerve to avoid striking Gonzalez’s bike, which he then drove onto a sidewalk, according to a criminal complaint.
Police said they did not pursue Gonzalez on Manida St., but when he was seen stopped at Randall Ave. and Faile St., they did approach. When Gonzalez saw them he jumped off his bike and ran west on Randall Ave., where he leapt onto the back of Fernandez’s Fernandez s unregistered bike, cops said.
The bike with the two men had just begun to pull away from Randall Ave. and Coster St. when the police car struck it from behind, cops said.
Both men were thrown off the bike. Fernandez was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Gonzalez, 28, was charged with reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, and reckless driving. He was released on a $7,500 bond. He appeared in court last Friday and was ordered to return Sept. 12.
At a Community Board 2 meeting in June, residents expressed concerns over the growing number of dirt bikers speeding through the area streets.
“We get pulled over for broken headlights, but what about the dirt bikes that cut people off?” asked Jorge Ramirez, owner of Manida Car Service.
According to Lt. Hamilton Nunez, of the 41st Precinct, NYPD policy is not to pursue the dirt bikers because it is too dangerous.
“They don’t want us chasing them,” Nunez said. “Whenever we see them pulled over we arrest them. As for chasing them up and down the Bruckner, that’s not happening.”
Gonzalez was spotted last Wednesday with his mother near the crash scene. He declined to comment on the crash. His right leg was in a cast, and he walked with crutches. His attorney, Cesar Gonzalez, said the broken leg was caused by the the crash but was only discovered after his last court date.
The lawyer disputed the police account of the crash and dem demanded an investigation.
“I simply have an issue that ridi riding an unlicensed dirt bike ha has become a capital offense, pu punishable by death,” Cesar Go Gonzalez said. “If their policy is not to chase, when did the their policy change, that it’s OK to ram? This dirt bike was ram rammed.”
A An NYPD internal affairs prob probe of the crash is continuing. The 41st Precinct’s comman manding officer did not respo spond to a request for com
m ment.