NYPD searching for hit-and-run driver who smashed into cyclist in Greenwich Village
GREENWICH VILLAGE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Police are searching for a suspect after he struck a cyclist in a hit-and-run crash in Manhattan on Wednesday.
The incident happened shortly after 3 p.m. at Mercer Street and West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village.
Police initially wanted to speak with the suspect, a 19-year-old man wearing a red-hooded Nike sweatshirt, at Washington Square Park, according to police. They say he was suspected drug dealer.
Sources say the suspect panicked when he was approached by police, got into a car, a black Ford Fusion with tinted windows and Pennsylvania plates, and began driving the wrong way in the protected bike lane on Mercer Street and struck the 44-year-old male cyclist.
The impact of the car striking the cyclist caused such a loud bang, witnesses say it sounds like "metal on metal."
"There was a yell, a bang, and some sirens," said witness Gabriel Dattatreyan. "It sounded like car on car, so metal on metal."
After the impact, sources say the suspect never stopped, and took off in the Ford Fusion.
"And I saw the guy, the legs, he was on the floor. Then the police started coming, and the ambulance, and they took the person," said witness Shirley Velez.
The driver ended up ditching the car near 156 Prince St. in SoHo, according to sources.
NewsCopter 7 was over Prince Street between Thompson Street and West Broadway Street, where police found the abandoned Ford Fusion with a cracked windshield.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he is in critical but stable condition, according to sources.
The suspect is still on the run, but police say they know who they are looking for.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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