A man wanted for selling drugs stole a car and attacked a 44-year-old cyclist while being pursued by police in Greenwich Village on Wednesday afternoon, according to sources and witnesses.
Sources and witnesses said the cyclist was riding in a bike lane at West 3rd Street and Mercer Street when a reckless, wrong-way motorist struck him — sending him crashing to the sidewalk, as police said at 3 p.m. Followed the stolen vehicle closely after 1 p.m.
The NYPD said that moments before the crash, the driver slammed into someone’s black Ford Fusion because police had previously accused him of selling narcotics.
“A cyclist was going right down the road and the car hit the cyclist,” witness Ariadne Chan-Miller, 17, told The Post.
“It looked like there were police behind him and the cyclist went flying in the air and then fell down and the car kept going. It stopped or nothing. The police had to stay back because they didn’t want to run him over,” she said, adding that she heard sirens and then the “immediate impact.”
The cyclist was not moving and his bike was damaged, Chan-Miller recalled.
Medics transported the injured victim to NYC Health + Hospital/Bellevue in stable condition with head and leg injuries, the NYPD said.
Ron Miller, Ariadne’s father, told The Post that after the hit-and-run, the driver ran a red light near the corner of Mercer Street and Bleecker Street and “slammed the sides” of the Uber.
“It was going really fast and half of its windshield was broken, so I called 911.”
Police said the driver eventually stopped and drove the crashed sedan several blocks away on Prince Street near West Broadway before fleeing the scene.
It was still on air till Wednesday night.
According to local outlets, police activity has increased this year, resulting in more than one car accident per day City Recently reported.
Additional reporting by Jack Morphett
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