Edwin Mieses, also known as “Jay Meezee”--the gravely injured biker who was hit during an video-recorded attack on an SUV in Manhattan--is a good father and was trying “defuse the situation,” celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred said on Friday.
His partner, Dayana Mejia, held a press conference with Allred on Friday in New York, saying that the three dozen bikers involved in the incident were “not thugs,” NBC New York reported.
Earlier this week, Mejia said that Mieses was in a coma and could be paralyzed for life. Friends set up the “Justice For Jay Meezee” Facebook page, which was heavily derided by other Facebook users.
Allred said the 32-year-old father of two was attempting to “calm people down” before SUV driver Alexian Lien struck him as he was reportedly trying to escape the fracas.
“Watch that huge vehicle, SUV, blast off, and watch it as it is lifted several feet off the ground as it rolls over Edwin Mieses,” Allred said. “Edwin Mieses and his family deplore what happened to the driver of the SUV,” she said.
Video footage taken by another biker shows Lien’s SUV getting surrounded by bikers before he rushes off. The bikers pursue him before smashing his driver’s side window in Upper Manhattan. A biker then beat Lien and left him bloody on the ground, according to the New York Daily News.
Lien’s wife said he drove off to protect his family and was not trying to harm anyone.
Rosalyn Ng, his wife, released a statement on Thursday.
“Our sympathies go out to the injured motorcyclist and his family. However, we were faced with a life-threatening situation, and my husband was forced under the circumstances to take the actions that he did in order to protect the lives of our entire family,” Ng wrote.
She added: “Our fear for our lives was confirmed when the incident ended with the ruthless and brutal attack on my husband, me, and, most importantly, our two-year-old child. We know in our hearts that we could not have done anything differently, and we believe that anyone faced with this sort of grave danger would have taken the same course of action in order to protect their family.”
Reggie Chance of Brooklyn was identified as the one who may have instigated the beating and chase, law enforcement sources told the Daily News. Chance has enlisted a lawyer and is expected to turn himself in.
