LI CRIME BRIEFS

BETHPAGE/11-year-old fights off stranger, cops say

A stranger grabbed at an 11-year-old girl outside her Bethpage home, but she kicked the man in the leg and ran inside the house to her family, police said Thursday.

The child's father said the man and vehicle were gone when he went outside.

The incident occurred in the family's driveway on Hahn Street in Bethpage about 3:05 p.m. Wednesday, Nassau police said. This was right after the girl and a friend, Joanna Ryan, got off a school bus together and were heading to their respective homes, the father said.

Detectives said they are looking for a black sedan, possibly a Chevrolet, and its driver, a man 30 to 40 years old, 5-foot-1 to 5-foot-6, about 170 pounds, bald and clean shaven, wearing a white T-shirt with a round collar.

The 11-year-old is dealing well with the incident, the father said, but not as well with a tragic accident that took place about three hours later. Her friend from the bus and her friend's mother, Barbara Ryan, were traveling in their car on Hicksville Road in Bethpage when they were killed in a traffic collision with a tractor-trailer.

- BILL MASON

EAST NORTHPORT/Motorcyclist injured in crash while fleeing police

A motorcyclist was seriously injured in East Northport fleeing from police after officers tried to stop him on suspicion of an illegal traffic maneuver, Suffolk police said Thursday.

Police said the incident began about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday when two officers of the Second Precinct spotted Brian Gins, 36, of 10 Meridian Ave., Kings Park, on his 2001 Kawasaki traveling illegally on the right shoulder south on Larkfield Road. They said he passed "several vehicles while driving on the shoulder" as he approached the intersection with Fifth Avenue.

Police said the officers activated their lights and siren and attempted to stop Gins, who they said "accelerated to a high rate of speed."

Police said Gins went through a red light, turned and headed east on Clay Pitts Road. The police cruiser got stuck behind a line of cars at the light and couldn't immediately pursue Gins, police said.

A short time later, witnesses reported seeing Gins lose control of his motorcycle, cross into the westbound lane on Clay Pitts Road and cross a lawn, where he was thrown from the bike. The bike crashed into a fence.

Gins was in critical condition after being taken by helicopter to Stony Brook University Medical Center, police said.

Police said Gins was issued summonses for driving with a suspended license, speeding, passing on the shoulder, passing a red light, having an unregistered and uninsured motorcycle and for improper registration plates. The investigation is continuing, police said.

- JOHN VALENTI