Cops Arrest Off-Duty Firefighter After Ramming Into Cyclist: NYPD

CHELSEA, NY — Cops arrested an off-duty FDNY firefighter Monday for ramming into a cyclist during an altercation last week, the NYPD said.

An off-duty firefighter was caught on video accelerating and hitting a cyclist on the West Side Highway last Thursday morning, NYPD spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Frances O'Donnell said. Cops arrested Brauley De La Rosa, 27, for the incident, charging him with reckless endangerment and driving without a proper license, per NYPD.

Gothamist first reported that De La Rosa, an off-duty FDNY firefighter, was the driver caught on a video attempting to run over a cyclist after the cyclist confronted De La Rosa for reckless driving.

De La Rosa confirmed to Gothamist he was the driver in a video taken by Barstool reporter Liz Gonzales Thursday morning.

Driver almost hits biker. Biker gets confrontational. Driver takes biker’s phone, proceeds to run him over. Driver should be in jail along with his https://t.co/sKsyCSRCTZ shirt. pic.twitter.com/4O5LGT0Pnl
— Liz Gonzales (@TheLizGonzales) June 6, 2019

De La Rosa, also a U.S. Army reserve officer, told Gothamist the video was "totally blown out of proportion."

"The guy hit my car with his bike and then wouldn't move," De La Rosa told Gothamist. "I was just trying to get out of the way [so] traffic could continue on."

Barstool Sports reporter Gonzales wrote a cyclist confronted the driver after running through a red light and nearly hitting the cyclist and pedestrians — including Gonzales and her dog.

"I don’t often side with bikers as they usually do whatever the f--- they please, but this particular biker was NOT at fault in any way, and watching this whole thing play out was WILD. They were both in each other’s faces, hands were flying, curse words were coming out left and right, and all the while traffic was backing up," Gonzales wrote.

Gonzales posted a second video Monday morning from another witness showing an NYPD officer asking the driver to return the cyclist his phone — which the driver reportedly snatched at some point during the altercation — but then allowed the driver to leave the scene.

Cops said that the driver and cyclist had left the scene, on the West Side Highway near West 24th Street, before police arrival — though the video Gonzales tweeted Monday morning shows NYPD personnel at the scene letting the driver leave.

Ran into the guy who witnessed the hit from the opposite side of the street. His footage shows the cop asking the driver (off-duty FDNY) to give the cyclist back his phone, AFTER he tried to run the biker over, & letting him drive away w/out consequence. Complete & total bullshit pic.twitter.com/sONCMDByeD
— Liz Gonzales (@TheLizGonzales) June 10, 2019

Councilman Antonio Reynoso, who represents Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, rallied with Transportation Alternatives and safe street advocates Monday at 1 p.m. at City Hall to demand an investigation and push for right-of-way street cameras.

"We need to break car culture; it starts with holding this driver accountable & investing in right-of-way cameras," Reynoso tweeted.

With one slip, a cyclist could have been killed last week due to driver aggression. I’m calling on the NYPD to thoroughly investigate & deliver justice in this case. We need to break car culture; it starts with holding this driver accountable & investing in right-of-way cameras. pic.twitter.com/Rmo8PYnvYk
— Antonio Reynoso (@CMReynoso34) June 10, 2019

FDNY did not immediately respond to Patch for comment on De La Rosa's arrest.

See here for the full Gothamist report and here for the Barstool Sports report.

This article has been updated with arrest information from the NYPD.