Assaulted on MVT — looking for witnesses

[Tim Kelley]

I can’t tell from your description, but was AWM on a bike or on foot? Did he have a long white beard, carrying a messenger bag, and was he shouting loudly to himself?

I had a guy cast a spell on me near the Intersection of Doom over the weekend.

[hozn]

I am in complete shock that this sequence of events, resulting in a child lying on the ground strapped into a bike seat, actually took place.

I hope any guilty parties are appropriately reprimanded, but mostly I’m just glad no one [and I mean the kid] was seriously injured. Thanks for reminding us that we shouldn’t chase down angry people for confrontation especially when we’re towing little children.

[Tim Kelley]

Was there a police report filed?

[cdjewell]

Sorry I wasn’t clear: AWM was on a not inexpensive road bike. Had to bust a gut to catch him. No police report filed. With no name, no witnesses, not even color/make/model of his ride, I didn’t see the point.

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[cdjewell]

@hozn 138102 wrote:

I am in complete shock that this sequence of events, resulting in a child lying on the ground strapped into a bike seat, actually took place.

I hope any guilty parties are appropriately reprimanded, but mostly I’m just glad no one [and I mean the kid] was seriously injured. Thanks for reminding us that we shouldn’t chase down angry people for confrontation especially when we’re towing little children.

My son’s a tough cookie. Just a slight abrasion on one knee. Definitely a teachable moment for both of us!

[KLizotte]

Next time you really should reconsider chasing down the perpetrator. You (or your son) may be seriously hurt. A jogger was slapped in the face by a kid riding a bike on the MBT recently, decided to chase him down, then was attacked by a large pack of kids and suffered a badly broken nose, shattered facial bones, and other serious injuries. Your pride isn’t worth that. (The victim posted a reddit description of the events here).

Please file a police report with the NPS; if they start seeing a pattern they might start looking for a specific individual and send out patrols more often.

That said, the MVT is usually VERY safe at all hours.

[consularrider]

@cdjewell 138110 wrote:

Sorry I wasn’t clear: AWM was on a not inexpensive road bike. Had to bust a gut to catch him. No police report filed. With no name, no witnesses, not even color/make/model of his ride, I didn’t see the point.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like the not so gentleman who assaulted me on the MVT heading south by National Airport in October 2013. He took exception to me commenting on his poor riding habits and tried to push me off my bike repeatedly (unsuccessfully) until I he went off in another direction. I called in a report to the Arlington Police. There was a thread on the Forum shortly after that about someone the police were looking for who was threatening MVT users which may have been the same individual.

[Tim Kelley]

There was this thread:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?6449-Mt-Vernon-Trail-Suspect-to-have-assaulted-bicyclists-(PIC!)

[creadinger]

@cdjewell 138097 wrote:

Witnesses would have noticed two dudes shouting and swinging fists at each other and a bike lying on its side with a child still strapped in his bike seat. While my focus was on AWM, I know some cyclists and joggers passed by.

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I certainly hope there were witnesses to this craziness, but it seems odd to me that no passersby didn’t jump in to at least ask what the F was going on. It’s SOOOO outside the norm to see 2 guys with bikes lying on the ground swinging at each other on the MVT… And with all the active duty military folks who traverse the trail who are trained to deal with unruly situations like this. I just find it odd that no one stopped. These days it seems like you’re lucky if you don’t get filmed doing something stupid.

But nonetheless, this is a decent place to ask for witnesses. Hopefully someone will step forward and this person won’t bother anyone else again.

[cdjewell]

@KLizotte 138115 wrote:

Next time you really should reconsider chasing down the perpetrator. You (or your son) may be seriously hurt. A jogger was slapped in the face by a kid riding a bike on the MBT recently, decided to chase him down, then was attacked by a large pack of kids and suffered a badly broken nose, shattered facial bones, and other serious injuries. Your pride isn’t worth that. (The victim posted a reddit description of the events here).

Please file a police report with the NPS; if they start seeing a pattern they might start looking for a specific individual and send out patrols more often.

That said, the MVT is usually VERY safe at all hours.

Indeed. Wife was *not* happy. She’s instructed our son to say “Calm down, Baba. Let it go. It’s not worth it.” I reached out to Arlington PD but I guess it’s NPS I should be contacting.

[cdjewell]

@creadinger 138126 wrote:

I certainly hope there were witnesses to this craziness, but it seems odd to me that no passersby didn’t jump in to at least ask what the F was going on. It’s SOOOO outside the norm to see 2 guys with bikes lying on the ground swinging at each other on the MVT… And with all the active duty military folks who traverse the trail who are trained to deal with unruly situations like this. I just find it odd that no one stopped. These days it seems like you’re lucky if you don’t get filmed doing something stupid.

But nonetheless, this is a decent place to ask for witnesses. Hopefully someone will step forward and this person won’t bother anyone else again.

While it wouldn’t surprise me that passersby would ignore two guys going at each other, I am surprised and disappointed that they could ignore a kid on the ground, strapped in his bike seat.

[Bilsko]

Could be worth checking Strava flyby to see if the rider shows up – not sure if you use it, but if someone else on the forum was on the MVT around 630, then it would likely capture that individual’s ride (if they use Strava of course) – I’m guessing they’d be the one riding along and then stopped just south of Mem bridge for a while.

I was on the MVT down by 14th st. bridge at 5:15 – checked my Flybys through 630PM but didn’t see anything (but it wouldn’t capture anyone who’s ride timing didn’t overlap with mine, and I was done by 5:40)

[cdjewell]

@Bilsko 138136 wrote:

Could be worth checking Strava flyby to see if the rider shows up – not sure if you use it, but if someone else on the forum was on the MVT around 630, then it would likely capture that individual’s ride (if they use Strava of course) – I’m guessing they’d be the one riding along and then stopped just south of Mem bridge for a while.

I was on the MVT down by 14th st. bridge at 5:15 – checked my Flybys through 630PM but didn’t see anything (but it wouldn’t capture anyone who’s ride timing didn’t overlap with mine, and I was done by 5:40)

Yeah, my Strava was recording. I checked flybys this morning. Couldn’t ID AWM, and it also showed that while I was stationary off the trail, no Strava user passed by.

[Subby]

Just curious – what precipitated his initial aggression?

[cdjewell]

@Subby 138145 wrote:

Just curious – what precipitated his initial aggression?

Experienced trail users treat the narrow stretch under the Memorial Bridge as a single file situation. I was behind a jogger that had entered the tunnel first. Not only did he not wait for me to get through, he entered even before the jogger exited. As we were about to squeeze by each other, I told him something like “Single file, dude.” He stretched out his left arm and tried to hit/push me as we passed one another. During our argument after I had turned around and caught up to him, he insisted it was his turn to enter the tunnel.

[Author]

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