Suspect arrested in 4-year-old boy hit by dirt bike in Queens
FLUSHING, Queens (WABC) -- A suspect is in custody in connection with a 4-year-old boy who was critically injured after being struck by a dirt bike in Queens, police said Wednesday.
Argenis Rivas, 29, is now charged with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident with injury, acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17, operating a vehicle without insurance, operating an unregistered motorcycle, and unlicensed operator.
Jonathan Beauchamp was inside a parking lot at the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Boathouse when he was struck just before 6 p.m. last Sunday.
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He was with his parents and ran out from in between cars when he was hit by a dirt biker who was driving through the parking lot.
The biker fled the scene without stopping, and the boy was rushed to the hospital with severe head trauma.
"Dirt bikes going back and forth, there was so much going on, we didn't realize somebody got hit until the ambulance came," witness Harold Hadalgo said. "Kind of messed up, especially for a child to get hit."
Police sources tell Eyewitness News that Rivas is affiliated with the Trinitarios gang, and a Crime Stoppers tip led to the arrest.
The NYPD has been cracking down on illegal dirt bikes and ATVs, with the department announcing Tuesday that it had seized at least 565 in the past three months.
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Despite the progress the NYPD says it's making, the danger from the illegal vehicles remain.
"There's far too many still out there, and anyone with information, where you are seeing them stored, meet up or anything else, give us a call," NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
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