CHARLOTTE — Charlotte-Mecklenburg police made two arrests and issued four citations in an operation that targeted a group that has been acting erratically on bicycles and motorized vehicles in the Queen City.
[ RECENT ARTICLE: Assault in uptown Charlotte leads to arrest of 5 cyclists in biker group, CMPD says ]
The bikers often travel in packs that disrupt traffic by going the wrong way, blowing through traffic lights, doing wheelies and playing chicken with motorists.
They have been seen in uptown and other areas of Charlotte, police said.
Officers watched a large group riding recklessly out of Camp North End into uptown Sunday disregarding traffic laws.
During the investigation, Richard Flood, 22, and a 15-year-old well-known to officers were charged with reckless driving.
Flood has multiple pending felonies including hitting a pedestrian with his dirt bike, which caused a serious brain injury and fleeing the scene. The 15-year-old was arrested Sunday for reckless driving for the third time. The teen was arrested twice in the last two weeks for those crimes, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.
Four citations were issued for reckless driving.
Another juvenile rider’s charges were diverted through the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Juvenile Youth Diversion Program.
Officers seized four bicycles and one dirt bike during the operation.
Riders have also committed violent acts including assault, armed robbery, shooting into occupied property, and assault with a deadly weapon, CMPD said.
Several cases from this year are listed below:
There was an assault with a deadly weapon call at about 9 p.m. on April 17 in the 200 block of West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. near Romare Bearden Park. A witness stated they saw a victim get shot and that the incident involved kids with bicycles.
Officers got cellphone video of the incident from a witness, which shows an apparent fistfight between the victim and several suspects. Two of the suspects were armed. One of the suspects struck the victim in the back of the head and later fired shots into the victim’s vehicle, hitting the victim in the spine and likely leaving him paralyzed.
Officers tracked down a juvenile who was with the suspects during the shooting. After an interview, officers identified the social media profiles of the people connected with the shooting.
Officers tracked down the two teens who possessed firearms during the encounter.
Officers arrested the first suspect, Jermaine Walker Jr., 18, and seized a firearm without a serial number.
Walker told officers that he assembled the firearm, himself.
The mother of suspect Makahi Alfayad, 18, turned him in, police said.
Detectives couldn’t find the firearm used connected with the shooting.
On April 20, officers watched four juveniles riding scooters the wrong way and swerving in and out of traffic in the 200 block of North Tryon Street.
Officers arrested the kids and charged them with reckless driving.
One of the suspects was also charged with assault by pointing a firearm after pointing a realistic-looking airsoft gun at an upset motorist.
Four parents of those juveniles were also cited for contributing to delinquency and neglect.
A juvenile on a bicycle swerved in front of a victim’s car on March 31 on Parkwood Avenue, which caused the car to clip the back tire of the bicycle.
The driver exited his vehicle to check on the suspect.
The juvenile, along with three other kids, assaulted the victim and took his wallet, keys and cellphone.
The group of kids got into the victim’s vehicle and drove off.
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The vehicle was later captured by a License Plate Reader and tracked until it crashed on Lee Drive.
The suspects jumped out and ran away before they were placed into custody.
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