American banker cleared in ‘road-rage jogger’ case

LONDON — A man who was arrested after a woman was shoved into the path of a London bus has been released and eliminated as a suspect in the incident, police said Saturday.

The man, Eric Bellquist, a 41-year-old American investment banker, was taken into custody Thursday on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm after police published a video of the violent encounter. Authorities asked the public to help identify the jogger, who was filmed shoving the woman in front of a bus on Putney Bridge. The woman suffered minor injuries.

Bellquist denied being the man in the video, and his lawyers released a statement saying that their client had been wrongly implicated and that there was “irrefutable proof ” that he was in the United States during the time of the incident, which took place May 5.

The Metropolitan Police said Saturday that the search for the jogger is continuing after a “good response” from the public.

The video shows the 33-yearold woman, who was not identified, falling to the pavement and the bus quickly swerving to avoid her head. Passengers from the bus rushed to her aid.

After shoving her onto the road, the jogger is seen running off. Police said he returned 15 minutes later on the other side of the bridge but would not acknowledge the victim.

The video was widely shared online after police published it last week under the hashtag “road-rage jogger.”

“The victim was put in extreme danger when she was knocked into the road,” Sgt. Mat Knowles, the investigating officer from the Putney Safer Neighborhood Team, said in a statement. “It was only due to the superb quick reactions of the bus driver that she was not hit by the vehicle.”