Biker hurt in melee tried to help SUV driver, lawyer says

One of the bikers involved in Sunday's melee with an SUV in Manhattan is an off-duty NYPD narcotics officer whose actions during the confrontation on the Henry Hudson Parkway are now being reviewed by internal affairs investigators, a law enforcement source indicated.

Friday night, a biker police sought for questioning in the case turned himself in at the 33rd Precinct, the NYPD said. Reginald Chance is seen in a video shot by another biker using his helmet to bash in the front-side window of Alexian Lien's SUV, police said. He has not been charged.

Earlier Friday, the NYPD said another biker was in custody. Robert Sims, 35, of Brooklyn, is seen on video trying to pull open the driver's door on the SUV before the vehicle sped away, police said. Charges against Sims are pending, police said.

Meanwhile, the family of a biker seriously hurt in the incident said Friday that he was only trying to help SUV driver Lien and defuse the road rage situation, the family of the injured man said Friday.

"The irony in this case is that Edwin Mieses [Jr.] was trying to help calm people down, and to help Mr. Lien and his family," said celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who is representing Mieses and his relatives.

Mieses, 32, was run over by Lien, the driver of the black Range Rover trying to escape scores of bikers who had surrounded his vehicle after it apparently collided with one of the motorcycles, police said. Lien, 33, sped away and was eventually stopped by some of the bikers on 178th Street, where he was beaten, according to police.

The incident put Mieses, of Massachusetts, in the hospital with a broken spine, fractured ribs and a torn aortic valve, according to Allred, who spoke along with the injured man's family at a Manhattan news conference. She said Mieses was no longer in a medically induced coma.

Dayana Mejia, the mother of Mieses' two children and his partner of 17 years, tearfully recounted how the injuries are likely to impact him for the rest of his life.

"You can imagine how difficult it was for us to learn about what happened to Edwin -- to learn that he almost died," Mejia said. "That he may never walk again."

In meeting with the media, Mieses' family and Allred tried to remove the stigma that the bikers were reckless riders bent on terrorizing the city and that Mieses deserved what happened to him. In talking to reporters, Allred also appeared to lay out the prospect of a lawsuit against Lien, although she said that decision would be made later.

In a statement Thursday, Lien's wife, Rosalyn Ng, said her husband sped away from the bikers because he believed he faced a "life-threatening situation."

Police Friday were waiting to see if another biker sought for questioning would surrender to the 33rd Precinct. As of late Friday he had not, police said.

Only biker Christopher Cruz, 28, of Passaic, N.J., has been charged in the case.

With Fausto Giovanny Pinto