NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A local business owner is attacked while riding his bike on the levee in Algiers.
It happened July 18 on the Mississippi River Trail near the intersection of Odeon and Patterson.
“I guess it was in shock. I was hurting. I was screaming ‘Oh god, oh my God,’” the man said.
It was the last thing he thought would happen to him while trying to get some exercise on a Monday morning around 8:15 a.m.
“A young lady parks a bike right where this incident took place and started doing crunches on the cement right there, so I’m like, okay, it’s pretty safe,” he said. “I kind of let my guard down thinking it was really safe place. A lot of people up there are going both ways.”
He used to ride his bike at Audubon Park, but his truck was broken into, so he thought a switch to the Westbank would be safer, riding along the levee from Old Gretna to the Chalmette Ferry and back.
“I slowed down at this shipyard, the old Todd shipyard,” he said. “Every bicyclist has to slow down right there because there’s three bumps you got to pass, so there was a guy standing there. I didn’t think nothing of it.”
He says the man wasn’t wearing gym clothes and was just standing on the path near the first bump. He assumed the man was just walking along and as he approached, the man even moved out of his way.
“After I got past the third bump, I started gaining my speed and something came up from behind me and hit me. It was him,” he said. “Knocked me over a big board they have right there and I flipped over that and went down to the cement side of the levee.”
He shattered his heel trying to catch himself as he tumbled.
“I had to crawl up the levee to get to safety,” He said. “I was trying to get to somebody’s house to come help me because I didn’t have my phone, my phone was attached to my bicycle. I can see him peddling away. I didn’t want him to see me moving around thinking he would come back and maybe finish me off. I was defenseless at this point. I was bleeding all over.”
Once his attacker rode off he tried to flag some people down, but they were suspicious and kept moving.
“I’m screaming ‘Please help me, please help me. I was attacked. They stole my bicycle,’” he said.
Three people ended up coming back to help, one a retired NOPD officer.
“I said ‘Please don’t leave me, please don’t leave,’” he said. “I was fearing for my life.”
He says he’s so grateful for the kind strangers and for the officers and EMTs who got there within 25 minutes.
“I don’t think I was the first one. I don’t want it to have to happen anybody else,” he said.
He’s now in a cast for 12 weeks, but thankful it wasn’t worse.
“I let my guard down. I should have been more aware, I should have been more cautious. Just be careful out there,” he said.
NOPD is investigating and asks anyone with any information to call 4th District detectives or leave an anonymous tip with Crimestoppers.
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