2 Cyclists Killed in Brooklyn Streets to Be Memorialized With Community Bike Ride

Photo via James Gregg/Facebook

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is inviting community members and bike-safety advocates on a two-mile bike ride Sunday afternoon, in memory of two local cyclists killed within days of each other on the streets of Brooklyn.

The group will meet 2 p.m. Sunday, April 23, at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Sterling Place in Park Slope, where 33-year-old bar owner James Gregg was killed last Wednesday by a delivery truck driving in a no-truck zone.

The group will then head north to the intersection of Classon and Lexington avenues on the border of Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy, where 34-year-old Weeksville resident Lauren Davis was killed less than a week earlier, on Friday, April 15 — reportedly in a neighborhood "slow zone" with no bike lane.

In both crashes, the drivers of the vehicles that killed Gregg and Davis stayed on scene, according to the NYPD.

Police said their initial investigation showed Davis had been riding south against traffic on Classon when she was hit by a northbound Fiat turning left onto Lexington.

However, the NYPD did not reveal whose testimony led investigators to believe Davis had been riding the wrong way. At least one commenter at Streetsblog NYC claimed they talked to witnesses who saw Davis riding with the flow of traffic. (We've contacted police for an update on the investigation.)

Another Streetsblog commenter who identified himself as Eric Rudell said of Davis: "Lauren was / is my neice. She had a pure heart... Innocent. Her father gave his life in the nane of this counrry as a US Marine... Force Recon. I ... 101St Airborne, USArmy ... I am still crying."

And another commenter, under the name Lynn Gonzales, wrote: "she was loved, dearly loved."

Not even a week later, on Wednesday, April 20, a well-known Park Slope resident — James Gregg, owner and manager of The Great Georgiana bar in Fort Greene — was killed by a tractor-trailer on 6th Avenue.

The NYPD initially said Gregg had clipped the truck's back tire with his bicycle. However, police later told the New York Times: "From what we understand, as the truck was passing, it created something like a wind force that sucked the bicycle back toward the back of the truck."

Again, some are skeptical of that narrative.

Gregg was described online as a"loyal friend," "sacred soul" and "amazing human" with "a smile you can't forget."

Just last fall, he celebrated the two-year anniversary of his bar, The Great Georgiana. "The sense of community [in Fort Greene] is like no other I have known," he told the Fort Greene Focus at the time. "We are really proud of the Georgiana and happy to be a part of the fabric of the community. It’s a good feeling."