CMPD makes another round of arrests after months of complaints about teens on bikes
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police carried out an operation over the weekend that put helicopters in the sky and officers on the ground to cite or arrest seven people accused of being part of “dangerous bike groups.”
Police dubbed some “serial offenders” and the bust is the latest in a string of high-profile incidents that have been problematic to drivers for months. The youth and young adults who are a part of these groups could just need more bike parks in the area, Charlotte youth advocate Greg Jackson told The Charlotte Observer in April.
“It sounds like a popular thing,” Jackson said. “Why don’t we meet them where they are?”
Police have been cracking down on cyclists and bike riders in the city who officers say are putting themselves and others in danger. There have been instances of large groups of riders taking up multiple lanes of traffic, doing wheelies, running red lights, riding the wrong way in traffic and playing chicken with motorists. In some cases, police have made arrests after violence — including assaults, armed robbery and shootings — where victims said they were attacked by a group of riders.
The majority of cases have happened uptown, but similar incidents have been reported across Charlotte, according to police.
The latest arrests came Sunday when officers saw a large group “riding recklessly” out of Camp North End, heading toward uptown, according to a CMPD news release.
Officers on motorbikes, in helicopters and vehicles moved in after watching riders commit “numerous traffic violations,” police said.
Richard Flood, 22, and a 15-year-old were charged with reckless driving, police said.
Flood has multiple pending felonies — including being accused fleeing after hitting a pedestrian with his dirt bike leaving them with a serious brain injury, CMPD said Monday. The 15-year-old, whose name was not released, has been charged on three occasions, including twice in the last two weeks, by CMPD for reckless driving.
Additionally, four citations were issued Sunday to others for reckless driving, police said. Another juvenile cyclist’s charges were diverted through the CMPD’s Juvenile Youth Diversion Program.
Four bicycles and one dirt bike were seized from the operation, police said.
Previous incidents with bike groups
▪ Four people, one as young as 14, were arrested March 31 after a reported robbery. Police said previously a man was beat up and robbed of his phone, wallet, keys and car on Parkwood Avenue following a vehicle collision with someone on a bike. He was assaulted after getting out of his car to check on the juvenile involved in the wreck, according to CMPD.
▪ In April, a man was shot in the spine in uptown on Martin Luther King Boulevard near a park, the Observer previously reported. CMPD says they arrested two people, both of whom were with a group on bicycles.
▪ That same week, police charged four parents after their children were cited for reckless driving. That case involved a driver reporting someone pointed a “realistic-looking airsoft gun” at them on the road. The juveniles, according to police, had been riding scooters the wrong way on streets and swerving in and out of traffic in uptown.
▪ Earlier this month, two teens and a 12-year-old were arrested after a reported assault, which ended with a group of kids leaving on bikes. Paul Withrow, a U.S. Army veteran, was attacked and robbed along Dalton Avenue, WSOC reported. Withrow told WSOC that he got in an argument with the kids before the assault. He needed five staples in his head after the attack, the report said.
▪ Two weeks ago, police announced five cyclists — ages 39, 29, 19, 17 and 15 — were charged with reckless driving after a reported assault in uptown against a cyclist who is a member of the same bicycle group.
