NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A local business owner was attacked while cycling on a dike in Algiers.
It occurred on July 18 on the Mississippi River Trail near the intersection of Odeon and Patterson.
“I guess it was shocking. I was hurt. I was screaming ‘Oh my God,’ the man said.
It was the last thing he thought would happen to him when he tried to exercise on a Monday morning around 8:15 am.
“A young girl parked her bike right where this incident happened and started hitting the cement right there, so I thought, okay, it’s pretty safe,” he said. “I was a bit caught off guard thinking it was a really safe place. A lot of people up there are going both ways. “
He used to cycle in Audubon Park, but his truck broke down, so he thought it would be safer to switch to Westbank, traveling along the dike from Old Gretna to the Chalmette Ferry and back.
“I slowed down at this shipyard, the old Todd shipyard,” he said. “Every cyclist has to slow down right there because you have to go three bumpy tracks, so there was a guy standing there. I don’t think about it. “
He said the man was not wearing gym clothes and was just standing on the road near the first impact. He assumed the man was just walking and when he approached, the man even moved out of his way.
“After passing the third bumpy road, I started to accelerate and something came from behind and hit me. That’s him,” he said. “Knock me over a big plank they had right there and I turned the board upside down and went down the cement side of the dike.”
He broke his heel trying to catch himself as he fell.
“I had to crawl up the dike to get to safety,” he said. “I was trying to go to someone’s house for help because I don’t have a phone, my phone is attached to my bike. I can see him peddling. I don’t want him to see me move around and think he’ll come back and maybe finish me off. I was defenseless at this point. I was bleeding all over.”
Once his attacker ran away, he tried to beat some people, but they got suspicious and kept moving.
“I was shouting ‘Please help me, please help me. I was attacked. They stole my bike,” he said.
Three people came back to help, one was a retired NOPD officer.
“I said, ‘Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave,'” he said. “I was scared for my life.”
He said he was grateful to the kind strangers and officers and EMTs who got there within 25 minutes.
“I don’t think I’m the first. I don’t want it to happen to anyone else,” he said.
Now he’s been in a cast for 12 weeks, but luckily, it’s not worse.
“I was caught off guard. I should have been more conscious, I should have been more cautious. Just be careful out there,” he said.
NOPD is investigating and asks anyone with any information to call a District 4 detective or leave an anonymous tip with Crimestoppers.
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